Family :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

19 October - 22 November 1914. Following the failure of the German Schlieffen Plan in August and September 1914, both sides engaged in a series of linked battles as they sought to outflank each other. The climax of these manouvres was at Ypres in November 1914 when the might of the German Army attempted to break the much outnumbered British Expeditionary Force. The political importance of Ypres, being the last town of any size in Belgium that remained in allied hands, established its importance for both sides and ensured a series of battles over four years.

The First Battle of Ypres in 1914 is characterised by a series of linked heroic stands by outnumbered British soldiers in conditions of confusion and weary endurance. The Germans never knew how close they had come to winning - at one point just the clerks and cooks were the last line of defence for the BEF. By the end of the battle the magnificent original BEF, composed of professional regular soldiers, had been all but destroyed and already the Territorial battalions were called into battle. From the end of 1914 a 'Regular' battalion was in terms of its compostion little different to a Teritorial or later Service Battalion. The professional soldiers had all but vanished.

Detail :

CAPTAIN GEORGE ARTHUR MURRAY DOCKER, of the Royal Fusiliers, was killed in action on November 17 1914. He was born on November 18, 1876, and was in the Highgate School Cricket XI in 1895, when he scored 312 runs with an average of 18.35 and took 44 wickets for 14.43 runs each. Since 1898 he had been a member of the M.C.C. for which he played frequently when military duties permitted, his best feat for the old club in first-class matches being to make 29 and 16 against Kent at Lord's in 1912. He also played for the Free Foresters and Oxford University Authentics, and in 1913 was a member of the M.C.C.'s team which visited the West Indies. He served in the South African War 1899-1901 and obtained the Queen's Medal with four clasps. When the 10th Middlesex were mobilised on the outbreak of the war with Germany, they were sent to Sittingbourne, and very shortly after that, as both the Colonel and the Second-in-Command had to go on sick leave, Captain Docker was for some time in temporary command of the battalion, as well as being Adjutant, and his untiring zeal helped to bring it to a high state of efficiency, while his personal influence did much to raise the whole morale of the corps. At the end of October the battalion was ordered to proceed to India. They had actually embarked, and the ship was on the point of leaving, when Captain Docker was recalled by telegram for service with the Expeditionary Force, and was ordered to take out a draft of the 3rd King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment to the 1st Battalion of that regiment in Flanders. He left England with the draft on the 8th November, and reached the 1st Battalion on the 15th November, 1914. The following evening he went into the trenches, and he was killed next morning, the 17th November, at Le Touquet, near Armentieres. He was buried near the station there, where there were already many graves of officers and men of the King's Own. Captain Docker married in 1903 Anna Louisa Maud Josephine, daughter of the late Louis Arthur Goodeve, Barrister-at-Law, and left four children : Arthur Guy, born November, 1904 ; Peter Goodeve, born June, 1908; Michael Lee, born November, 1911; and Alison Everilda Josephine, born February, 1914. Captain Docker was well known as a cricketer. He represented his college in cricket, football, and athletics, and played polo and cricket for his regiment. He also won many prizes for athletics and golf. He was a member of the Inner Temple, and was called to the Bar in June, 1914.

Masonic :

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley