Source: Michael Doyle Their Name Liveth For Evermore: The Great War Roll of Honour for Leicestershire and Rutland.
He was the son of George Brown a grazier, born in the July quarter of 1864 in Caldecott, Rutland (son of Thomas Brown, 1818-1906 and Elizabeth Green, 1820-1905) and his wife Henrietta Georgina Brown (nee Fawcett, married on the 24th November 1894 in All Saint’s Church, Rotherhithe, Southwark, Surrey) born 1872 in London. George Fawcett was born on the 10th August 1897 in Caldecott and was baptised on the 5th September 1897 in the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Caldecott, his siblings were Thomas Walter, born on the 6th June 1896 and baptised on the 2nd August 1896 in the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Caldecott, Dorothy Nancy, born on the 3rd December 1898 and baptised on the 12th July 1903 in the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Caldecott and Henrietta May, born in the April quarter of 1901 and baptised on the 12th July 1903 in the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Caldecott, all his siblings were born in Caldecott, Rutland, in March 1901 the family home was at The Yews, Caldecott, Rutland. In April 1911 George was absent from the family home in Caldecott, residing there was his widowed father, a farmer and grazier, and his siblings, Dorothy, a schoolgirl, Henrietta, a schoolgirl, Marjorie Louisa, a schoolgirl, born on the 13th June 1903 and baptised on the 12th July 1903 in the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Caldecott and Hetty, born in the October quarter of 1908, the latter two siblings were both born in Caldecott, also residing with the family was George’s Aunt, Amelia Brown, a housekeeper, born 1872 in Caldecott and his Great Aunt, Martha Ann Crowson, an assistant housekeeper, born 1841 in Caldecott, meanwhile George was a schoolboy and was residing as a school boarder at Burmill Road, Market Harborough, Leicestershire.
He was educated at Market Harborough Grammar School, Leicestershire and upon leaving he joined the staff of Messrs. Barclays Bank at Kettering, Northamptonshire. Enlisting at the age of sixteen in the 26th Bankers Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, he was subsequently transferred to the 1st Battalion and took part in engagements on the Somme, Messines, Amiens, Passchendaele, Cambrai, Lens and St Quentin. He had gained a commission, and expected coming home to England a day or two before his death. He was killed by a machine gun bullet near Mons. The Officer Commanding his Company wrote to his father as follows: - “Throughout the day your son’s coolness and courage was a splendid example to all ranks, and on that day, I lost one of my smartest and best men. I have had him buried in a peaceful little French orchard where he will remain undisturbed by the ravages of war.”
George’s army service enlistment documents do not survive, therefore the currently available information pertaining to his military service has been obtained from the following sources: - 1921 HMSO Publication, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914 - 1919, WW1 Service Medal and Award Rolls, Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, WW1 Medal Rolls Index Cards, WW1 Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, Commonwealth War Graves Commission Registers and the publication Rutland and the Great War, compiled by G. Phillips.
As George was not awarded the 1914-15 Star, it is safe to assume that he first entered the theatre of war sometime after the 31st December 1915. On the 5th November 1918, he was officially reported as having been killed in action, he was buried in Cross Roads Cemetery, Fontaine-au-Bois, France.
George was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal, however the Medal Award Rolls record that the medals were returned unclaimed with the annotation in red ink against the entry was as follows: - Retd. K.R.992, CRV/266B, d/15-5-24, 7860/Adt.
The Medal rolls also indicate that George saw service with the 26th Battalion Royal Fusiliers from the 4th May 1916 until the 17th October 1916. Then saw service with the 1st Battalion Royal Fusiliers between the 3rd May 1917 and the 5th November 1918. There is no explanation as to his service during the intervening period of the 18th October 1916 and the 2nd May 1917.