George W. Garside

George Wright Garside, son of George and Beatrice Garside, was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts June 15, 1921.  He attended St. Patrick’s Grammar School and Lawrence High School.  He had one sister, Margaret, who was already married to James Mahoney when George went to war.  George served in the Civilian Conservation Corps in North Adams, Massachusetts in the 1930s.  He enlisted with his two friends, Andrew W. Vanasse and Raymond J. Duckett, in August 8, 1940 in Boston.  Friends and relatives thought of the friends as the “Three Musketeers.”  They were always together.   Garside served as a corporal in Battery I, 11^th Coast Artillery.  Raymond J. Duckett died in Corregidor Dec. 29, 1941, being the first Lawrence combat death in World War II, his mother, Alice being the first Gold Star Mother.  Andrew William Vanasse died at the Cabanatuan Prison Camp in the Philippines July 13, 1942.  Garside was taken prisoner May 7, 1942 and stayed a POW first in the Philippines and then in the Nippon Camp in Japan.  He returned to the United States, a sergeant, in October of 1945.  After he returned from the war he worked as a masonry contractor in the Lawrence area.  He married Edna Kelleher and had two children: Robert and Eileen.  He died 3 Jan 1990.

In August 2010 Robert Garside, George’s son, gave the Library two scrapbooks, photographs, and a variety of ephemera relating to his father’s military service.  These two photographs were among the material.  The first one is shortly after induction  and two others in the photograph may be his best buddies, Andrew W. Vanasse and Raymond J. Duckett.  The second one was either taken as a POW or shortly after release.