COMMEMORATED IN PERPETUITY BY THE

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

George Rutter had joined the Canadian Army Service Corps/Canadian Engineers as part of the 2nd Pioneer Battalion which joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force into Europe.  His experience with Trams in Yorkshire steered him towards the 2nd Tramways Company. Tramways companies built, maintained and operated light railways in forward areas. The gauge used was 60-centimetre and the cars were interchangeable with the Army Light Railway System. The trains were powered with petrol because they operated beyond the point where it was considered safe to use steam power. Tramways carried ammunition to artillery batteries, engineering supplies, troops, rations, gas and other comparatively light loads. They also ran hospital trains to carry the wounded to field ambulance stations.

Throughout June 1918, 2nd Tramways Company was positioned at Aix Noulette. This important village lay behind Allied lines throughout the war, just south of the Loos battlefields and just west of Vimy Ridge. The entry in the company's war diary for the 21st June is thus: Villers Station Cemetery was begun by the French but was used by Commonwealth divisions and field ambulances from the time they took over this part of the front in July 1916 until September 1918. It is associated particularly with the Canadian Corps whose headquarters were nearby and many of the graves in Plots V to X date from April 1917 and the Battle of Vimy Ridge. 

Georges father, Henry Rutter came from Devizes, Wiltshire and after marrying Charlotte Bryant (Georges mother), they lived at Great Bedwyn, Wilts, This is where George and his two brothers were born. Henry was a Railway Signalman and soon found himself moving to Steventon for his job. George's Parents lived at 21 Somerset Terrace on The Green, Steventon from 1901 to 1920. George Lived with them until about 1906, when he moved away and got married. He married Lilly Potts, in London and they moved to West Riding, Yorkshire to start a family. By 1911 George was working as a Tram Conductor for Yorkshire (West Riding) Electric Tramways. Not one for staying in one place for too long, soon the family were off to Canada. When War was declared he joined up with the Canadian Engineers as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. When George was killed in France in 1918 his two sons, George and Freddie would have been 12 and 8 years old, respectfully. George and Lilly also had a third son (name unknown), he would have possibly been about 5 years old, when his father died.