George Herbert Payne, Lieutenant, Suffolk Regiment

George Herbert Payne came up to Jesus College in 1911 from Wellingborough Grammar School.

Born: Willoughby, Lincolnshire on 16 November 1892

Fell in action: 26 August 1914

A Jesus oarsman

He rowed in the third boat in Lent Term 1913 and Lent Term 1914. In the 1914 boat he rowed at No 7 and the student magazine, Chanticlere, records him as weighing 11st 2lbs. The same edition of Chanticlere also comments that “The members of the third boat are to be congratulated upon winning their oars, and as a crew they moved their boat extremely well. Only on the third night did they have to row for more than a minute before making their bump” (Chanticlere, Lent Term 1914, pp39-40).

Killed in action

Payne fell in action at Le Cateau in the retreat from Mons on 26 August 1914. A Sergeant-Major wrote that he “died nobly defending the position in which he had been placed” (Jesus College Cambridge Society, Annual Report, pp27-8).

You can email us on ww1-project@jesus.cam.ac.uk, go to our First World War homepage, or find us on Lives of the First World War.