> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.ipswich.co.uk/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # George Thomas Manning: The soldier who waited 111 years to come home - URL: https://www.ipswich.co.uk/they-gave-their-lives-for-ipswich-no-1-monday-george-thomas-manning-the-soldier-who-waited-111-years-to-come-home/ - Published: 2026-11-02T12:16:24.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-02T14:10:10.000Z - Description: An Ipswich father of two, killed in the trenches in 1915, is finally to receive a military funeral after his remains were identified through DNA. But behind the remarkable discovery lies the story of a family that suffered more than its share of heartbreak. - Author: Jon Moran - Tags: They Gave Their Lives for Ipswich, History, Heritage & Museums, Long Reads ℹ️ They Gave Their Lives for Ipswich is a series of stories about those who died in service to their town and country during the week of Remembrance Day. In March 1915, a young Ipswich soldier was buried in a field in Belgium by the men who had fought alongside him. They put up a wooden cross and wrote home to his mother. That was the last anyone knew of Corporal George Thomas Manning's grave. His wife never had a headstone to visit. His surviving daughter grew up without her father. And as the decades passed, the whereabouts of his remains became another unanswered question among the enormous losses of the First World War. Until now. More than 111 years after he was killed, George's remains have been identified through DNA testing. A full military funeral is being planned for Belgium next year, and an extraordinary search is under way to find his surviving relatives. It is a remarkable conclusion to a story that began in the ordinary streets of Victorian Ipswich. ## A working man from Woodhouse Street George Thomas Manning was born in Ipswich in 1881, the son of George and Ada Manning. His father worked as a quay porter, part of the army of labourers whose work kept Ipswich's busy docks operating. By the age of 20, George himself was employed as a farm carter on Alderney in the Channel Islands. He eventually returned to Ipswich, where he worked as a timber carter, transporting goods in an age when horses still supplied much of the town's commercial muscle. In September 1905, he married Florence Elizabeth Bayles, the daughter of an Ipswich baker, at St Michael's Church. The couple settled in Woodhouse Street and had two daughters, Florence Nellie, born in 1906, and Ethel Katie, born in 1909. But their happiness was interrupted by tragedy. In July 1912, little Ethel died, aged just three. She was buried in Ipswich Old Cemetery. Three years later, Florence would lose her husband too. ## The quiet month that killed 140 men By March 1915, George was serving as a corporal with D Company of the 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, in Belgium. The battalion was holding positions in the Vierstraat area, near Kemmel, south of Ypres. It was supposedly a relatively quiet period. There were no major planned attacks, no famous battles and no great military victories to occupy the history books. But quiet on the Western Front was a relative term. Men still lived under almost constant threat from artillery shells and snipers. Death could arrive without warning, regardless of whether a battle was being fought. During that supposedly quiet month, the battalion suffered 140 casualties. George was among them. He was killed on the afternoon of 9 March 1915, aged 34. A month later, the Suffolk Chronicle and Mercury reported that his mother, Ada, then living at 4 Handford Square, had received a letter from one of his comrades, Private A. Mills. The letter revealed something important about George's character. Although only in his thirties, the younger soldiers regarded him almost as a father figure. They had buried him behind the trenches alongside other fallen men, and erected a cross to mark his resting place. For a grieving mother in Ipswich, it must at least have offered some reassurance that her son had not been left where he fell. But the war continued, the ground was fought over, and the grave was lost. George's name was eventually inscribed on the Menin Gate at Ypres, the great memorial commemorating thousands of soldiers with no known grave. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/29/1e/291e4b7f-e551-4458-b546-61963954b22f/content/images/2026/11/The_Menin_Gate-_Ypres_-3660818234-.jpg) The Menin Gate at Ypres, contributed ## And then his younger brother died The Manning family's suffering did not end in 1915. George's younger brother, William Valentine Manning, had also joined the Army. Born in Ipswich in 1891, William had been a regular soldier before the war, serving with the Royal Field Artillery. By 1917 he had reached the rank of sergeant. On 7 April that year, William died of wounds at the 1st Canadian Casualty Clearing Station in France. He was just 26. He was buried at Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension, in the Pas-de-Calais. For their mother Ada, it meant losing two sons to the same war, barely two years apart. One had a grave in France. The other had a name on a memorial in Belgium. George's widow Florence was left to bring up their surviving daughter, while the wider Manning family faced the grief of two brothers who would never return to Ipswich. ## A discovery in a Belgian ditch Then, in 2019, something extraordinary happened. During ditch clearance work near Kemmel, human remains were uncovered. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission recovered them, and they were taken to a mortuary in France. Among the objects found with the remains were two brass badges bearing the word 'Suffolk'. It was a tantalising clue. In 2024, the Ministry of Defence received a report about the discovery. Investigators established that the 2nd Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment had served in the area and that 26 of its dead remained missing. The task of identifying the soldier fell to the Ministry's War Detectives, a specialist team that investigates historic battlefield casualties and attempts to restore their identities. Alexia Clark began painstaking genealogical research, building family trees and tracing descendants who might provide DNA samples. It was not a quick process. Six potential identities were investigated before the breakthrough came. A DNA sample from George's great-great-nephew produced the match that investigators had been seeking. The soldier found in the Belgian soil was Corporal George Thomas Manning of Ipswich. After more than a century, he had his name back. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/29/1e/291e4b7f-e551-4458-b546-61963954b22f/content/images/2026/11/Out_Risbygate_Barracks_Bury_St_Edmunds_Suffolk_group_photo.jpg) Part of the Suffolk regiment, 1915, contributed ## The family who never knew George's wife and surviving daughter died without knowing where his remains lay. It is difficult to imagine what that uncertainty must have meant to his family, particularly in the years immediately after the war. For many bereaved households, there was at least a cemetery, a marked grave or somewhere to leave flowers. For the Mannings, there was a name carved into the Menin Gate, hundreds of miles from home. The Ipswich War Memorial Project, which has spent years researching the town's fallen servicemen and women, recorded George's life long before his remains were identified. Andrew Beal, from the project, told the BBC that families were often devastated by having no grave to visit. Now the project is helping the Ministry of Defence trace George's wider family. Two further relatives have already been located, including one in Australia, but the search continues. ## A funeral at last - and a missing photograph A full military funeral is planned for spring 2027, when George will be laid to rest in Belgium with the honours he was denied in 1915. The precise date and cemetery have yet to be confirmed. The Ministry of Defence hopes that more of his descendants can be present. There is also one rather touching request. Despite the extensive research into George's life, investigators are still hoping to obtain a photograph of him for the funeral's order of service. The Ipswich War Memorial Project has identified several branches of the family, including descendants of George's brothers and sisters who lived in Ipswich and elsewhere. Anyone who believes they may be related to George Thomas Manning or his brother William Valentine Manning is encouraged to contact the Ministry of Defence War Detectives at [DBS-MODWarDetectives@mod.gov.uk](mailto:DBS-MODWarDetectives@mod.gov.uk). Perhaps somewhere in an Ipswich attic, among the faded family albums and photographs of people whose names have long been forgotten, there is still a picture of George. A carter from Woodhouse Street. A husband, a father, a brother and a son. A soldier whose comrades thought so highly of him that they regarded him as a father figure. In 1915, they gave him a wooden cross. In 2027, 112 years after his death, he will finally receive a permanent grave bearing his name. And perhaps, with a little help from the people of the town he left behind, the face of George Thomas Manning will be remembered alongside it. --- **Don't forget:** If you enjoy our content, please [add Ipswich.co.uk as a "preferred source" on Google](https://google.com/preferences/source?q=ipswich.co.uk&ref=ipswich.co.uk) so you can easily find more of the content you value. [Add as a preferred source on Google](https://google.com/preferences/source?q=ipswich.co.uk&ref=ipswich.co.uk) --- ### This article cost us \~£54 to produce It's free for you to read thanks to the generous support of our partners. Please support us by supporting them.