It proved difficult to trace George's family in the records as his life was so short and the gravestone dedication gives so few clues.

 

The baptismal registers of East Boldre, Beaulieu and Boldre churches show the only recorded birth of a 'George Phillips' in 1850-1852 is to Ellen Phillips, who was 21 at the time of his birth. This is backed up by the 1851 census which shows Ellen and her son George (aged 4 months) living with her parents, William and Hannah (nee Gregory). 

 

 In 1853, Ellen married George Rixon, a farm labourer and possibly her son George's father? Almost exactly a year later her young son George died. He was buried on 2nd July 1854 by the Rev John Bartlett Burt. One of the many young children buried in the chapel's graveyard, it is a sad reflection of the high infant mortality of the time.

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George and Ellen went on to have six more children together 

 

The epitaph is a quote from the book of Job 14:2.