Private George Congdon Gorham was killed instantly by enemy shell fire on October, 10, 1918, near the village of Escaudœuvres. George was a member of the 1st Canadians, Motor Machine Brigade, Bordon Battery. He enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary Force on April 27, 1917, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and shipped to England in August 1917. George was a student in the College of Forestry and would have graduated in 1916, but left the UW to enlist in Canada prior to the entry of the United States into the war. He is buried at Cantimpre Canadian Cemetery in France. (bit.ly/uw_gorham)
George was named for his grandfather, a prominent California politician, newspaper editor and Mayflower descendant. Born in Seattle, his parents were William Hills Gorham, a lawyer, and Kathleen Mary Louise Walton, a native of Ireland. George was the oldest of five children, with four younger sisters. He was a 1912 graduate of Broadway High School. While at the UW, he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity. The Gorham family were members of Seattle’s University Unitarian Church and George was the first gold star for their congregation. (Unitarians in the State of Washington, 1870-1960, pg. 169.)