George Henry James Debney was the oldest o f the five children born t o Sarah and George Deb ney . Ge orge was born in 1892 in th e villag e o f Moreton where h is fa ther was th e blacksm ith. T wo o f his siblings sadly died in infancy . George woul d have been educ ated at t he village sc hool and le aving school aged 14 in 190 6 he found work as a gardener . The coming o f war in A ugu st 1914 saw the need for volunteers to join the army and it seems that Georg e Debney was on e that v olunt eered early i n the war when h e was enlisted a t Shrewsbury into a local regiment, the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry. Following training h e was posted t o the 5 th battalion and went to France with them landing i n Bou logne o n 22 n d May 1915. George Debney’ s war would be a sho rt o ne. The 5 th Battalion King’s Shropshire Light Infantry was in the 42 nd Brigade, 14 th Light Infantry Division. This division saw action a t Hooge o n 30 th – 31 st July 1915 when the Germans first used flame throwers. They next saw action at the Battle of Loos f ought between 25 t h Septem ber and 15 th October 1915. This was the first genuinely large scale British offensive action, but in a supporting role to a larger French attack in the Third Battle of Artois. The battle is historically noteworthy for the first British use of poison gas Compared with the small-scale British ef forts o f spring 1915, this attack o f six Divisions (60,000) men was a mighty offensive and at the time was referred t o a s ‘The Big Push’. Despite heavy casualties, there was considerable success o n the first day in breaking into enemy positions near Loo s an d Hulluch. Private George Debney was one of the casualties on this first day , he has no known grave and is remembered on the Menin Gate at Y pres in Belgium.

George H.J. Debney

Private 1501 1 – 5 th B attali o n Kin g’ s Shrops hire Light I n fa ntry Ki lled in ac ti on 25 th September 19 15 – aged 23 Remem ber ed on the Me ni n G ate at Y p res in Be l gi um

Y pres (Menin Gate) Mem orial Historical Informatio n Y pres (now Ieper) is a town in the Province of W est Flanders. The Memorial is situated at the eastern side of the town on the road to Menin (Menen) and Court rai (Kortrijk). Each night at 8 pm the traf fic is stopped at the Menin Gate while members of the local Fire Brigade sound the Las t Post in the roadway under t he Me morial's arches. The Meni n Gate is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Y pres Salient. Broadly speaking, the Salient stretched from Langemarck in the nort h to the nort hern edge in Ploegsteert Wood in the sout h, but it varied in area and shape throughout the war . The Salient was formed during the First Battle of Y pres in October and November 1914, when a small British Expeditionary Force suc ceeded in s ecuring the town bef ore the onset of winter , pushing the German forces back to the Passchendaele Ridge. The Second Battle of Y pres began in April 1915 when the Germans released poison gas into the Allied lines north of Y pres. This was the first time gas had been used by either side and the violence of the attack forced an Allied withdrawal and a shortening of the line of defence. The site of the M enin Gate w as chosen bec ause of the hundr eds of thous ands of men who passed thro ugh it on their way to the battlefiel ds. It commemorates casualties from the forces of Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and United Kingdom who died in th e Salient. In the case of United Kingdom casualties, only those prior 16 August 1917 (with some exceptions). United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who di ed after t hat date are named on the memorial at T yne Cot, a site which marks the furthest point rea ched by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war . New Zealand casualties that died prior to 16 August 1917 are commemorated on memorials at Buttes New British Cemetery and Messines Ridge British Cemetery .