George Herbert Latue 1890-1918



George Latue was just six months old when he made his first appearance on the 1891 Census. He lived in Blackgate,Coxhoe with his parents, Joseph (46) and Elizabeth (30).  Joseph was a “stone quarryman” who had been born in Rainton. His wife had been born in Shincliffe and was a Blenkinsopp, living in 3 Avenue Row when the 1881 Census was taken. George had an older brother John (7) who would go on to marry William Appleton’s sister, Mary. His sister, Sarah, was four.

Mrs Latue’s connections with the village may well have been a driver for her to wish the family to relocate to Shincliffe. The 1901 Census finds them there, living in Pond Street, where the young George would have grown up with William Appleton, Kit Carlin and James McKeown, all of whom would lose their lives in The Great War. By this point, George and his siblings had been joined by Margaret (7), Fred (5), Thomas (4) and Robert (4 months).

The 1911 Census shows us that Elizabeth had been widowed. George, Fred, Thomas, and Robert still resided in the house. They were joined by Elsie May, her grand-daughter, and Elizabeth’s brother, George Blenkinsopp (58).

John had married Mary Appleton. He served with the Northumberland Fusiliers during the war, reaching the rank of Corporal, and could be found living with his wife and son in Steavenson Street in 1939. Sarah had married Joseph Prest and lived in Houghton-le-Spring. John was recorded lodging there with his sister and brother-in-law on the evening of the Census. Margaret was working as a kitchen maid in a girls’ school on the South Bailey in Durham. Fred went on to join the Royal Navy in WW1 and in 1939 could still be found living in the family home in Pond Street with his wife and children. He was an ARP Warden and so continued the sense of service imbued in him by his war experiences. Thomas had joined the Royal Tank Corp in 1915 and in 1920 married Mildred Kell whose father had been a Post Office Linesman in Durham. The couple lived in 14 Avenue Street in 1939. Just up the street, at Number 18, was Robert who had married Sarah Robinson in 1925. He was a miner like his brother.

George Latue married Jane Sarah Bones from Trimdon in 1914. Together they lived in 15 Pond Row, just two doors away from George’s mother. Their daughter, Dorothy, was born on 22^nd September 1915. He went on to be a Bombadier in the Royal Field Artillery. The RFA provided howitzers and medium artillery close to the front line. George was killed in action on 10.5.1918. He is buried in Blagny-Trouville Communal Cemetery, Somme, France. Mrs Latue remarried in 1925. Her second husband was James Aitkin from Newcastle, and they had a daughter, Eleanor. Dorothy married Leslie Masson and lived in Hebburn. She died in 1999. 

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