George Frederick Broad, the eldest son of George and Ellen Broad, was born in Trottiscliffe on 30 August 1884. He spent his childhood living on Windmill Hill in Wrotham Heath and attended Platt School. George was part of a large family, with three brothers and four sisters. By the age of 16, he was already working as a houseboy, a testament to his early sense of responsibility.

On 21 February 1905, when employed as a farm labourer, George visited the Army recruiting office in Maidstone and enlisted for 12 years of military service. At the time, he was recorded as being 5’ 4” in height, weighing 125 lbs, with a dark complexion, grey eyes, and dark brown hair. He also sported an anchor tattoo on his right forearm.

George's military journey began at The Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) depot in Maidstone, from where he was posted to the 2nd Battalion in Hong Kong on 4 November 1905. He spent over a year in China before returning to the UK on 20 January 1907.

After two years and 48 days of service, George was discharged on 9 April, with his conduct being recorded as very good. This marked the end of his first stint in the military, and he returned to civilian life in Wrotham Heath.

Back in Wrotham Heath, George returned to farm labouring, and on 22 October 1910, he married a local girl from Platt named Emma Bance. During the Great War, Emma’s father, William, was well-known around the parish for his charitable work as ‘Nobby Barnes’.

Within a year of their marriage, George found work as a ragstone quarryman, while Emma worked alongside her father as a paper sorter in the paper mill. On 27 October 1913, almost three years after they married, George and Emma became parents to a baby girl named Ivy May.

After the outbreak of war in August 1914, George re-joined the Colours in January 1915, enlisting in Bromley with the Royal Field Artillery and assigned to the 19th Brigade in the 27th Division - an artillery unit that had been in France since Christmas, the previous year.

On 2 March, after training, George was sent to his new unit and joined them in the field at Dickebusch with a draft of 17 other men, all of whom held the rank of Driver.

In late April, the 19th Brigade, consisting of four batteries equipped with four 18-pounders, participated in the 2nd Battle of Ypres. On 25 April, George lost his life during the attack on Hill 60. His body was either never recovered or later identified, and he is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.