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January – George was best man at the wedding of Robert Graves and Nancy Nicholson.

Easter – attended the wedding of Geoffrey Winthrop Young and Eleanor Slingsby.

End July – George and Ruth spent a week in Skye with David Pye and Leslie Shadbolt.

September – training in Newcastle accompanied by Ruth.

End of September – returned to France. Assigned to the 515th Siege Battery positioned between Arras and the Channel coast.
Commanding officer was Major Gwilym Lloyd George (son of the British Prime Minister). Fighting was further to the south.

10 November – George was with Geoffrey Keynes who was with a unit near Cambrai when they heard shouts about an Armistice late at night.

He spent Armistice Day with his brother Trafford (who had trained as a pilot after being invalided home in 1915, joined the Royal Flying Corps, and by the end of the war was a Royal Air Force squadron commander).

He spent a week in Paris and Christmas with his men. Then rented a room in Calais waiting to be demobilised.
Returned home in the second week of January 1919.

January - On his return to France following leave George Mallory was transferred to Brigade Headquarters, 3 miles behind the front line. He was appointed as assistant to the colonel but as the colonel hated delegating he only had menial chores to carry out. He had to learn to ride a horse and accompany the colonel on inspections. He had a batman who had been a barber in civilian life.

February – brief assignment as a liaison officer to a nearby French unit.

End of March – he applied to return to his battery which had moved to a new position. The Germans were starting to retreat and talk was of the Americans joining the war.

He was increasingly getting pain in his ankle making walking hard. The doctor said it was the result of a previous break in 1909 which hadn’t healed properly and he would need an operation after the war. The ankle worsened and he was sent home for the operation in London followed by recovery at Westbrook.

July - his ankle was better enough for him to visit the island of Arran with David Pye and Will Arnold-Forster [first time he had been to the Scottish hills] having first spent a few days with Cosmo Gordon's family.

September – army doctors passed him fit for duty. He was sent to an army camp at Avington Park, near Winchester, to train on the new sixty-pound guns. He borrowed a motorcycle and visited Ruth at the weekends. She was nearing the end of her pregnancy with their second daughter Berridge (known as Berry) who was born on 16 September.

Early Oct – made a full Lieutenant and undertook a course for newly promoted officers.
On his return from Westbrook on his motorcycle he cashed into a gatepost crushing his right foot. He was in hospital for a month and took another month before he would walk on it.

End of 1917 – passed fit for service but instead of returning to France he took a battery commander’s course at the artillery school at Lydd. This school came under the command of his brother-in-law Ralph Brooke. Ruth and the children went with him and stayed with Ralph, Mary and their three children.

Christmas 1917 – spent at Westbrook.

January - On his return to France following leave George Mallory was transferred to Brigade Headquarters, 3 miles behind the front line. He was appointed as assistant to the Colonel but as the Colonel hated delegating he only had menial chores to carry out. He had to learn to ride a horse and accompany the Colonel on inspections. He had a batman who had been a barber in civilian life.

February – brief assignment as a liaison officer to a nearby French unit.

End of March – he applied to return to his battery which had moved to a new position. The Germans were starting to retreat and talk was of the Americans joining the war.

He was increasingly getting pain in his ankle making walking hard. The doctor said it was the result of a previous break in 1909 which hadn’t healed properly and he would need an operation after the war. The ankle worsened and he was sent home for the operation in London followed by recovery at Westbrook.

July - his ankle was better enough for him to visit the island of Arran with David Pye and Will Arnold-Forster [first time he had been to the Scottish hills] having first spent a few days with Cosmo Gordon's family.

September – army doctors passed him fit for duty. He was sent to an army camp at Avington Park, near Winchester, to train on the new sixty-pound guns. He borrowed a motorcycle and visited Ruth at the weekends at Westbrook. She was nearing the end of her pregnancy with their second daughter Berridge (known as Berry) who was born on 16 September.

Early Oct – made a full Lieutenant and undertook a course for newly promoted officers.
On his return from Westbrook on his motorcycle he cashed into a gatepost crushing his right foot. He was in hospital for a month and took another month before he would walk on it.

End of 1917 – passed fit for service but instead of returning to France he took a battery commander’s course at the artillery school at Lydd. This school came under the command of his brother-in-law Ralph Brooke. Ruth and the children went with him and stayed with Ralph, Mary and their three children.

Christmas 1917 – spent at Westbrook.

January 1916 - began his military training in Weymouth.
They rented out the Holt and Ruth and Clare moved to a cottage near Dorchester and then a more suitable place in Abbotsbury (a village 5 miles from Weymouth) so that they could spend their weekends together.

1 April - George moved from Weymouth to Lydd and Ruth returned to Westbrook. He only had Sundays off but they found a tiny flat in Littlestone where they could stay together.

4 May - George was assigned to the 40th Siege Battery and left for France. After a week he took the troop train to join the battery which was positioned in the northern sector of the western front a short distance from the front line.

Ruth remained at Westbrook and they let the Holt firstly to Mr and Mrs Green and then to the O’Malleys.

George was a Second Lieutenant meaning he was third in command behind the commanding officer Captain Lithgow and Lieutenant Bell. His responsibilities included taking charge of the firing of the guns and manning the observation posts (O.P.s) from where the fire could be directed. As he spoke fluent French he was also tasked with buying provisions at the local markets.

29 May – the unit moved south to ‘a hot part of the line’. A British infantry attack was imminent and the battery had to haul its guns into position with horses.

30 May - when the attack was launched the battery fired off more than 600 shells.

14 June – the battery moved south again and took up position near Albert, just north of the River Somme.

1 July – launch of the British offensive at the Somme. The battery had been firing at the German line for a week and at 6.30 on the morning of 1 July the firing intensified.

6 July - the battery fired all day in support of another British attack.

15 July – he saw flame throwers being used by the French for the first time.

29 July – George and 5 of his men went up the front line and after renewing a telephone wire they were crossing open ground when they heard an incoming shell and dived for cover. The two men who were carrying the coil of wire were moving more slowly and were killed.

Mid August – George was sent to rest camp near Amiens for 10 days. He started writing a novel, later to be called The Book of Geoffrey.

26 September - the British captured Thiepval (which had been their goal on 1 July)

December – sent home for 10 days leave returning to France on Boxing Day and arriving back at the battery on 29 December.

January 1916 - George began his military training in Weymouth and they rented out the Holt. Ruth and Clare moved to a cottage near Dorchester and then a more suitable place in Abbotsbury (a village 5 miles from Weymouth) so that they could spend their weekends with George.

1 April - Ruth returned to Westbrook when George moved from Weymouth to Lydd. He only had Sundays off but they found a tiny flat in Littlestone where they could stay together.

4 May - George was assigned to the 40th Siege Battery and left for France. After a week he took the troop train to join the Battery which was positioned in the northern sector of the western front a short distance from the front line. Ruth remained at Westbrook and they let the Holt firstly to Mr and Mrs Green and then to the O’Malleys.

George was a Second Lieutenant meaning he was third in command behind the commanding officer Captain Lithgow and Lieutenant Bell. His responsibilities included taking charge of the firing of the guns and manning the observation posts (O.P.s) from where the fire could be directed. As he spoke fluent French he was also tasked with buying provisions at the local markets.

His Battery took part in the Battle of the Somme which lasted from 1 July until 18 November 1916.

In December he was sent home for 10 days leave returning to France on Boxing Day and arriving back at the Battery on 29 December.

Increasing numbers of George’s friends were joining up to serve in the war effort in different capacities but when he enquired about doing so himself his Headmaster refused him permission as the Government wanted to retain its school teachers. By July Ruth was pregnant and George was restless so he went on a climbing trip to Pen y Pass with Hugh Heber-Percy and toured Yorkshire with his father.

On 18 September their first child was born - a daughter called Frances Clare (known as Clare).

His brother in law, the artillery officer Ralph Brooke, offered to help him get a commission in the Royal Artillery, if he could get permission from his Headmaster to join up. This was finally agreed and Brooke wrote to a friend who ran an artillery training course in Weymouth to recommend Mallory. The training was due to start in January 1916 so he travelled to Birkenhead to spend Christmas with his parents, then a few days climbing at Pen y Pass with Conor O'Brien and Herbert Reade before visiting his sister Avie in Mobberley. He did not spend Christmas with Ruth and Clare.

Letters
PP/GM/3/1/1915/1-9 Pen y Pass (July and August)

PP/GM/3/1/1915/10-11 Touring Yorkshire with his father (August)

PP/GM/3/1/1915/12-13 Pateley Bridge on his own (August)

PP/GM/3/1/1915/14 On the train to Cambridge (August)

PP/GM/3/1/1915/15 On the train from Birkenhead after having spent Christmas with his parents (December)

PP/GM/3/1/1915/16-17 Pen y Pass (December)

Increasing numbers of George’s friends were joining up to serve in the war effort in different capacities but when he enquired about doing so himself his Headmaster refused him permission as the Government wanted to retain its school teachers. By July Ruth was pregnant and George was restless so he went on a climbing trip to Pen y Pass with Hugh Heber-Percy and toured Yorkshire with his father. On 31 July Ruth moved into Westbrook, her father's house.

On 18 September Ruth gave birth to their first child - a daughter called Frances Clare.

His brother in law, the artillery officer Ralph Brooke, offered to help George get a commission in the Royal Artillery, if he could get permission from his Headmaster to join up. This was finally agreed with Fletcher and Brooke wrote to a friend who ran an artillery training course in Weymouth to recommend Mallory. The training was due to start in January 1916 so George travelled to Birkenhead to spend Christmas with his parents, then a few days climbing at Pen y Pass with Conor O'Brien and Herbert Reade before visiting his sister Avie in Mobberley. He did not spend Christmas with Ruth and Clare.

Ruth Turner's letters to George Mallory, to whom she became engaged in April 1914 and married on 29 July 1914. They first met at a dinner in the Autumn of 1913 at the house of Arthur Clutton-Brock, a lawyer and writer who lived in Hindhead Road not far from Charterhouse School where George was teaching. Ruth’s mother Mary had died six years before and Ruth and her two sisters Marjorie and Mildred lived with their father, Hugh Thackeray Turner, at Westbrook, an elegant house on the far side of the Wey Valley. They met socially several times over the next few months and in March Thackeray Turner invited George to accompany him and his daughters on a trip to Italy. George and Ruth fell in love during the week long’s holiday and became engaged in May.

Shortly after the engagement Ruth left to accompany her family on a long standing pre arranged holiday in Ireland based in County Donegal. George and Ruth pledged to write letters to each other daily when separated.

George and Ruth got married on 29 July 1914, George’s father conducted the ceremony and their best man was Geoffrey Young. Due to the worsening situation in Europe they could not spend their honeymoon in the Alps as they had hoped but instead went to North Devon and then camping on the Sussex coast.

George Mallory’s correspondence with Ruth Turner, to whom he became engaged in April 1914 and married on 29 July 1914. They first met at a dinner in the Autumn of 1913 at the house of Arthur Clutton-Brock, a lawyer and writer who lived in Hindhead Road not far from Charterhouse School where George was teaching. Ruth’s mother Mary had died six years before and Ruth and her two sisters Marjorie and Mildred lived with their father, Hugh Thackeray Turner, at Westbrook, an elegant house on the far side of the Wey Valley. They met socially several times over the next few months and in March Thackeray Turner invited George to accompany him and his daughters on a trip to Italy. George and Ruth fell in love during the week longs holiday and became engaged in May.

Shortly after the engagement Ruth left to accompany her family on a long standing pre arranged holiday in Ireland based in County Donegal. George and Ruth pledged to write letters to each other daily when separated.

George and Ruth got married on 29 July 1914, George’s father conducted the ceremony and their best man was Geoffrey Winthrop Young. Due to the worsening situation in Europe they could not spend their honeymoon in the Alps as they had hoped but instead went to North Devon and then camping on the Sussex coast.

Purchased from Corpus Christi College in 1923

Nor recorded in the Muniment Book

Bought by the College in 1922