The Lailey family came originally from Curridge, where George was born in 1895, the eldest son of George Lailey senior, a woodman and farm worker, and his wife Elizabeth.  They moved to East Ilsley in about 1909, where they lived in Abingdon Road.  Young George worked on the farm as a carter.

In September 1914 George enlisted at Newbury in the Hampshire Regiment, and was sent to Mullingar in Ireland for training.  He was part of the 11th  Battalion, a new type of service battalion which became known as Pioneers.  Their function was to relieve the infantry from some of the practical tasks required aside from combat duty, such as wiring, digging wells and trenches, and construction work.  They were also a trained and capable fighting force.  George’s battalion embarked for France on 18 December 1915, and for the next two years the Pioneers were occupied on various fronts.  They were in the Loos sector, the Ypres salient and on the Somme, sometimes working behind the lines building roads, camps, rail and tramways, but often coming under fire while repairing trenches and wire in the front.  They were to prove themselves in battle too:  the History of the Royal Hampshire Regiment has this to say: