Bolster, Private George Christan

Service highlights

  • Service number: 727511
  • Rank: Private
  • Unit: Canadian Machine Gun Corps, 3rd Battalion
  • Born: December 23, 1891, in County Kerry, Ireland
  • Date of death: August 26, 1918
  • Buried at: Feuchy Chapel British Cemetery (grave II. G. 8.)
  • Parents recorded as: George and Catherine Bolster (nee Marshall), Bailick Cottage, Ballinacurra, County Cork

A Life and Service Remembered

George Christian Bolster was born in Tarbert, County Kerry, and came to Canada in 1910, finding work as a farm hand in rural Ontario. In the St. Marys area he was known locally as “Pat”, a young man making a new life through steady work and community ties.

He enlisted in Ontario and ultimately served with the Canadian Machine Gun Corps. Like so many who trained for a war that kept changing shape, his service moved through different postings before he reached the front. His story, in local recollections, includes stretches of hard trench routine, illness and recovery, and the constant pull back and forth between training, duties, and the next draft overseas.

A photograph from St. Marys shows George beside Dorothy Tanswell in 1916. Local notes suggest he may have been engaged to her, and that both Dorothy and his mother were formally notified when he was killed. It is one of those details that makes the record feel human: not just a name and number, but a family waiting for letters, and a community that remembered.

George is buried in France at Feuchy Chapel British Cemetery. His grave and the entries that preserve his service help ensure that, more than a century later, he is still spoken of by name.

Major battles and operations

  • Arrived in France in time for fighting around Arleux and Fresnoy (near Vimy Ridge), as described in local unit history notes.
  • Served through the later 1917 period associated with Passchendaele, though local notes indicate he did not take part in the main fighting there.
  • Posted to the Canadian Machine Gun Corps during its major 1918 expansion, joining the 3rd Battalion in August 1918 (local notes).
  • Killed during operations near Feuchy on August 26, 1918, during the Arras area fighting of late August 1918.

Learn More (Where we got all the information)