Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From the book Fallen Saints - George Rischbieth Jury was born at New Glenelg in April 1895 and attended St Peter’s College  1909 -1912 but by the time the Great War commenced, he and his older brother Charles (Old Scholar) were in England to further their studies.

George gained his commission to second lieutenant on 29 October 1915 and shortly thereafter joined the 7th (City of London) Battalion and would have fought at Vimy in May 1916 before being killed at High Wood in September that year.

The 1/7th (City of London) Battalion was raised at Finsbury Square London in August 1914 as part of the 2nd London Brigade, 1st London Division. The battalion joined the 4th London Brigade, 2nd London Division at Watford England in November 1914, landed at Havre, France in March 1915 and became part of the 140th Brigade, 47th Division in May. [i]

This excerpt from a letter written by Doctor R.H. Rischbieth on 30 January 2006 provides an insight into the events surrounding his cousin’s death.

 His unit having served in Eastern France near Verdun embarked on a forced march westward to the Somme where the 1916 Battle of the Somme was fought to prevent a German breakthrough to the English Channel. The unit captured its target ‘High Wood’ but 2nd Lieutenant Jury was killed in action on September 14th while occupying the Seaforth Trench in the Front Line which they had taken over from a battalion of the 142 Brigade in front of High Wood. None of his uniform or other equipment was returned to his relatives. In his Will G R Jury had left funds requesting that a drinking fountain be erected in what is now the Big Quadrangle at St Peter’s College ‘In memory of my beloved Headmaster Henry Girdlestone.’ [ii]

Perhaps the humble Canon decided the fountain, which stands in a prominent place within the St Peter’s College grounds, should bear the inscription commemorating the life of George Rischbieth Jury and the fact that on 14 September 1916 he sacrificed his life in the service of his country; he was 21 years of age. 

George’s brother Charles was a Lieutenant with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry but after being severely wounded at Ypres in 1915 was invalided out of the service; he resumed his studies at Oxford the following year.

In a letter to the School dated 3 March 1916, H. O. Hopkins (OS) said that after six and a half months in France he was granted a week’s leave in England and while there met up with Charles Jury.

My Brigade was at Loos and had lost half its men. For two months I was attached to a Tunnelling Company of Royal Engineers as listening officer, an exciting experience. On my arrival at Waterloo, the first person I met was Tom Stirling. I also saw Eric Young, Cedric Hayward, and Charlie Jury who looked fairly well, though still on crutches. [iii]

Professor Charles Rischbieth Jury, MA (Oxford), poet, playwright, author, and journalist was the Chair of English language and literature at Adelaide University 1946 -1949; he died in 1958. [iv]

[i] James, E A, Historical Records Of British Infantry Regiments In The Great War 1914-1918, Rank Xerox Copy Bureau, Birmingham Revised Edition, 1976, p. 194 & 197
[ii] Rischbieth, R H, letter, dated 30 January 2006
[iii] St Peter’s School Magazine - W K Thomas & Co, Adelaide, August 1916, p. 47
[iv] Wall, B,  'Jury, Charles Rischbieth (1893 - 1958)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 14, Melbourne University Press, 1996, p. 594-595