George Walton Marwood

564032 Sergeant (Observer) George Walton Marwood,
114 Squadron, Royal Air Force

Bristol Blenheim Mk IV, of the type operated by 114 Sqn RAF. (© IWM CH 781)

George Walton Marwood was the only son among the five children born to the marriage between Hugh F. Marwood and Emmaline (nee Walton). George’s sisters were; Hilda Mary (b. 1905), Doris Emmaline (b. 1906), Kathleen (b. 1908), and Cora (b. 1910). Hugh Marwood was born in Cockerton in County Durham in 1870. He worked as a Corve Repairer above ground at a colliery. A corve was a basket woven from osier, a type of willow, which was used to move coal underground from the hewer to the bank at the pit-head.

Emmaline was born in Bolton on Dearne near Doncaster in 1873 and all the Marwood children were born there so it appears that the family were very settled there. Hugh Marwood died in Doncaster in 1924 and it appears that his family moved to Barwick at some time after this as his daughter, Doris, married Barwicker, George Cooper in December 1929 and she was described as being of the parish of Bolton on Dearne at the time.

Rheinberg War Cemetery (CWGC)

George Marwood was the first man from the parish to die during the Second World War when his Bristol Blenheim bomber on 114 Squadron RAF was lost on 13th October 1939. He was flying in Blenheim IV N6160 from the squadron’s base at Villeneuve in France on a reconnaissance mission of the Rhur in Germany. Three aircraft had been detailed to undertake the mission but one aircraft had to be withdrawn due to a burst tyre and a lack of spares with which to repair it. Of the two that flew that day, the aircraft piloted by Flight Lieutenant F Harrison returned and he reported heavy anti-aircraft fire and fighter attacks, so it seems likely that the Blenheim Sergeant Marwood flew in was shot down. All three of its crew were killed that day; Pilot Officer KGS Thompson, Aircraftsman 2nd Class A Lumsden and Sergeant Marwood now lie side by side in the Rheinberg War Cemetery. And with two other airmen killed that day they are the earliest casualties buried there.