Anyone who attended the funeral of Captain George Lee, IMT (late Rifle Brigade), held in the churchyard of his old home, Yetminster, on Wednesday could not but have been impressed by the wonderful sense of peace and rest that pervaded the place. After a life of unique adventure in Africa, India, America, and Canada his worn and suffering body was laid to rest beside his beloved father. The solemn service was taken by his uncle, Red. EHH Lee (vicar of Whitchurch Canonicorum) and his cousin, Rev. E Hertslet (vicar of Ramsgate), and Rev. MJ Morgan (vicar of Yetminster), there being also present his old schoolfellow, Rev. J Lynes, and Rev. Hall, curate of Yetminster. Besides the chief mourners Captain Lee’s mother, sister and brother-in-law, there were many friends present and numerous villagers who had known him from boyhood. The coffin was attended throughout the service and for many hours before by his most faithful servant and friend, Rajab Ali Khan, who was with his master through India, Persia, Beluchistan, and Afghanistan, and came to England as his personal attendant when Captain Lee was sent home on sick leave. After the service in the churchyard Rajab, through the kindness of Mr Hall, who translated for him, was able to tell everybody what his master had been to him.

Dorset County Chronicle: Thursday 9th September 1920

George Johnston Lee was born in the summer of 1886, the second of four children to Reverend Robert Lee and his wife, Elizabeth. Robert was the vicar of St George’s Church in Fordington, Dorset, when George was born, but moved west to Toller Porcoram not long after he was born.

Tantalisingly little information about George’s early life remains. He does not appear on the 1901 or 1911 census records, and it is likely that he was already away travelling the world by this point. It seems clear that he followed a military, rather then a clerical, career and, by the end of the First World War he was serving in the Indian Army Reserve of Officers. Attached to the Rifle Brigade, George had reached the rank of Captain.

George’s father had become ill in the early 1910s, and having moved to St Andrew’s Church in Yetminster, he retired from the post in 1912. He and Elizabeth moved to Dorchester, but when he passed away in 1916, at the age of 59, his last wishes were to be buried in Yetminster, the village having held a special place in his heart.

Captain Lee survived the First World War, but, as the newspaper report suggests, he became unwell. George had contracted amoebic dysentery, and returned to England to recuperate. The condition was to prove too severe, and he passed away in London on 29th August 1920, at the age of 34 years old.

In accordance with the family’s wishes, George Johnston Lee’s body was taken back to Dorset, and he was laid to rest next to his father, in the tranquil St Andrew’s Churchyard, Yetminster.

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