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Pte. George Henry Gladden
British Army 15th Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers
from:Bethnal Green, London
George Gladden went into battle in Mametz Wood in May 1916 with the 1st London Welsh. His fellow soldier, Private F. Laydon wrote to George's wife describing how George had been shot in the neck, the leg and the shoulder. He had been left in a hollow in the ground and his companions were unable to return for him, but other men came back later in the day and reported that " the Germans had taken in our wounded with the utmost care and attention....The gentleness was wonderful and we ourselves could not have cared for them more tenderly."
George returned to England several months later. His wife had eventually discovered that he was in a prisoner of war camp in Nurnberg and had written to him regularly until he came home. George reported that he had been left for dead in the German mortuary, but that a German mortuary attendant had realised he was still alive and had called for assistance. George was attended by a German surgeon, who had trained in London and so spoke good English. The surgeon stitched up all his wounds and George lived to run a very successful engineering parts business and eventually died in 1972.
