A SOLDIER who died in January 1917 while serving as part of the Heavy Branch Machine Gun Corps has received a replacement headstone.

Gunner George Victor Elmes, who died at the age of 19, was training to be a tank crewman at Bovington, Dorset when he travelled from there to Chippenham to visit his ill mother.

Tragically, he himself fell ill on his way to see his family and died in Trowbridge Red Cross Hospital on January 3, 1917, before his mother died two months later.

Gareth Davies from Chitterne, visited George’s grave at Trowbridge Cemetery on the centenary of his death this year and noticed that his Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) headstone needed repair works.

After contacting the commission and discovering a replacement had already been ordered, a ceremony took place yesterday after the new headstone was installed.

Samantha Daynes, media manager for the UK at CWGC, said: “We’re very pleased to be able to give George Elmes a replacement headstone to better commemorate his life and to make sure people remember him.

“We’d like to thank Gareth for letting us know, and for remembering George.

“It’s estimated that there is at least one CWGC war grave within three miles of everyone’s front door in the UK and we would like the people of Britain to visit their nearest war graves to remember those who gave their lives in both world wars.”

Mr Elmes was born in Park Lane, Chippenham. At his burial in January 1917, a firing party, bearers and buglers from the barracks, as well as staff from the hospital, were in attendance.

Mr Davies said: “I served in the Royal Tank Regiment, the successors to the Heavy Section, for over 25 years and am now a historian and writer.

“One of my projects is to get serving or past members of the regiment to visit as many of our Great War burials in the UK, France and Belgium, to pay their respects and to learn a little more about what our predecessors were up to 100 years ago.”