Roll of Honour World War I 1914-1918
Name Mollison, George
Rank: Gunner
Service No. 126292
Regiment: Royal Field Artillery 34th Bty. 189th Bde.
Died 24/09/1917 Age 20
Buried or commemorated at KLEIN-VIERSTRAAT BRITISH CEMETERY III. D. 15. Belgium
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In detail:
Another of the original boarding pupils in Bridge of Allan days he, together with his younger brother Charles, was a member of the victorious cricket and football sides of 1913-15. He was wicketkeeper in the Cricket XI and was appointed Captain of School in 1914-15. He became a gunner in the Royal Field Artillery, probably in 1916, seeing action in the Ypres area where he died, probably in the Passchendaele offensive, on the 24th of September 1917. He is buried in the Klein Vierstraat British Cemetery, 6 kilometres southwest of Ypres on the southern part of the Salient. He was only twenty when he died.
In September 1917, the Battle of the Menin Road Ridge began and George's Brigade were in the thick of it. As the infantry anxiously waited in the forward trenches, over a thousand big guns started firing, roughly one artillery piece for every 1 metre of the front line. This was the start of a creeping barrage of shellfire that placed a curtain of explosions just ahead of the advancing infantry, which would then constantly shift - or creep - forward directly in front of the attacking troops. On the whistle, four divisions of British soldiers rose and made their way across no-man's land to the German trenches. The afternoon and evening saw no fewer than eleven determined German counter-attacks against various parts of the line; all were broken up and the enemy repulsed. At 6.30pm, where 41st Division (and George) was located, the Germans launched another heavy counter-attack but quick action by the gun batteries broke up their formations and the attack petered out. Over all, the British attack was a great success and most of the objectives were captured on its first day. Over the next few days, the British continued their offensive, seeing off many German counterattacks. However, a day before the battle ended, on 24th September, 1917, Georg e was killed, probably by enemy artillery. He was buried in the Klein Vierstraat British Cemetery, 6 kilometres south-west of Ypres, aged just twenty.