George Lidington was born in Wolverhampton, England, in 1877. One of six children to Frederick Lidington and Charlotte Fox, he served ten-months with the British Army as a Despatch Rider during the Boer War in South Africa. In about 1901 George married Rosina Glover and by the time they migrated to Western Australia in 1910 they’d celebrated the arrival of their only child.
After initially living on Mounts Bay Road, West Perth, the Lidington’s relocated to Geraldton after George commenced working as a Linesman with the Postmaster-General’s Department in March 1914. The following year George played for the Thistle club in the Geraldton British Football Association’s three-team league.
In December 1915 and aged 38, George enlisted as a Corporal with the newly formed 44th Battalion. He left from Fremantle in June and soon after arriving in England was admitted to Fargo Military Hospital, near Larkhill, suffering bronchial catarrh. He rejoined his battalion for training at nearby Salisbury Plain before proceeding to France in November.
The harsh winter was spent alternating between the front line trenches and training in the rear areas before the 44th Battalion were engaged in their first major action at Messines, Belgium, in early June 1917. The following month George was twice promoted, on both occasions to Temporary Sergeant as cover for senior officers who’d been hospitalised by sickness.
George was killed in action 6 October, 1917, at Zonnebeke in Belgium. His battalion’s operations in Ypres came at a significant cost with 834 of its 992 men either killed, wounded or reported missing by the time they were relieved for a rest in mid-October.