Source: Michael Doyle Their Name Liveth For Evermore: The Great War Roll of Honour for Leicestershire and Rutland.
He was the son of Thomas and Louisa Saddington. George having been wounded earlier in the war when serving with the 5th Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment was reposted to the 2nd/5th Battalion on his recovery. He was wounded during the attack on Polygon Wood on the 26th September 1917, and was taken to a hospital to the south of Poperinghe where he died from his injuries on the 28th September. Other sources show his place of residence as Ellistown, Leics. The War Diary entry for the 26th September 1917 records. ELM TREE CORNER. 2.00am. Battalion HQ established forward for the attack at ELM TREE CORNER D.20A.05.60. 3.50am. Bombardment started. 5.50am. ZERO hour, the Battalion went over to capture all enemy positions on HILL 37 sheet 28.NE1, D.20A.45.80, A and B Companies in front line each two platoons in front line, 1 platoon in support, D Company in support. 2nd Lt. BOWIE killed, Captain O. H. FIELDEN wounded, 2nd Lt. F. D. FARLEY wounded. Platoons kept within 100 yards of barrage and in some cases closer, general tendency was to get too close to barrage. Hostile strong point caused little difficulty as leading waves were close under barrage. 6.50am. All objectives taken. Lt. Col. G. B. G. WOOD wounded, 2nd Lt. L. ROWBATHAN wounded. Bombardment of both sides continued during whole day. Battalion HQ established in Pill Box on HILL 37, D.20A.65.85. 4.00pm. Enemy counter attack beaten back, Captain W. H. OLIVER, Lt. C. H. L. WYNNE wounded. Lt. Col. G. GERMAN took command of the Battalion. Battalion HQ moved to Pill Box D.20A.7.8. Artillery very active on both sides during night of September 26th/27th.The War Diary for the 28th September 1917 records. HILL 37. Shelling not quite so heavy as previous days. Periods of comparative quiet. Back areas bombarded with high explosive and gas shells at night. 2nd Lt. L. ROWBATHAN died of wounds, 2nd Lt. S. W. G. TALLIS wounded.

Source: Leicestershire War Memorials Project.
Coalville Times article - Friday October 12th, 1917

LOCAL CASUALTIES

Sergeant George Saddington, of the Leicesters, was wounded in action on September 26th and died on the 27th, the sad news being conveyed in a letter from a chaplain, who states that the deceased soldier is buried in a cemetery behind the lines. Sergeant Saddington was 25 years of age and married, his wife residing at Luton. He is a son of Mr Thomas Saddington, of 58, Albert Street, Coalville, and before the war worked at Coleorton Colliery. He had been in France about 18 months. His brother, Private W. Saddington has had a foot amputated through wounds received in action. Sergeant Saddington is the 7th member of the congregation at St. Saviour’s Catholic Church, Highfields, Coalville to be killed in action.

Coalville Times article - Friday October 19th, 1917

MEMORIAL SERVICE AT ST. SAVIOUR’S CHURCH

At the memorial and requiem service at St. Saviour’s, Coalville for the late George Saddington, Father Degan spoke as follows.

“This present Mass is being offered up for the repose of the soul of Sergeant George Herbert Saddington, who at the age of 26 was killed in action in France on September 27th, last. He is the seventh member of this congregation to lay down his life for his country – his six predecessors being, Hunt, Ducksbury, Sheffield, Lovell, Thorpe and Ketcher. He was my first convert in the Coalville Mission, and became the controlling influence of the local branch of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, which dispenses food, clothing and money among the poor without any reference to their religious beliefs, much to the astonishment and admiration of the late Mr S. P. Matterson, who at the time was both a Guardian and a member of the Urban District Council. Later on, Saddington added to his activities by taking charge with Peter Hart, of a small contingent of Boy Scouts that had been raised in connection with the Church.

So far as St. Saviour’s Mission is concerned death has gone forth with his sickle, and has had a royal reaping of the choicest and the richest grain. We have lost in large measure the cream and flower of our young manhood. The very ones who constituted the main hope for the future spread of Catholicity in this district, have been sacrificed on the battlefields of France and Mesopotamia.

Not in vain have they surrendered their lives. The manner and circumstances of their deaths will bear perpetual and eloquent witness both to their allegiance to the faith of their baptism, and to their heroic generosity in the cause of patriotism. They have fallen in as noble a cause as did those Christian soldiers, who fell in the battle of Lepanto in 1571, in order to frustrate the designs of Turkish ambition, which at that time, like Prussianism today, aimed at the subjugation of the whole of Europe.”

St Saviour’s Bulletin

Vol. 1. November 1928 No. 4.

Published by Father Degen, The Catholic Church, Coalville, Leicester

Price – One Penny.

St. Saviour’s Roll of Honour

Edward Henry Hunt.
Joseph Sheffield.
Francis Edward Stafford.
Harold Edwin Ketcher.
William Ducksbury.
Allan Thorpe.
George Herbert Saddington.
Arthur Lovell.
John Mulrooney.

How vain is the wealth of flowers,
How vain is the mourner’s wreath,
How useless the marble tombstone,
To the dust that lies beneath.

How futile the empty praises,
How futile the tears that fall,
The sable and crape of mourning,
How empty and vain are all!

The voice of the dead is calling,
All through the wealth of flowers,
Not for our grief and tears.

Our own, our lost, our lov’d ones,
Oh! Could we but hear them speak;
Prayer is the flower they ask for,
Prayer is the wealth they seek.

More dear than the flower-lit grasses-
The fragrant churchyard sod-
One prayer for their souls to Jesus,
One prayer to the heart of God.

We can open the gates of heaven
By the wondrous key of prayer,
That the suffering souls may enter
The joy that awaits them there.

Research undertaken and submitted by Andy Murby 24/12/2017