Second marriage
George probably got to know Sarah Wright Barrow when he was assigned to the army post in Taunton, Somerset, England. Like him, she had lost her spouse. The pair were married in the attractive parish church of Wilton, a quiet suburb of Taunton in Somerset, in the late autumn of 1856. She was working as a laundress, the daughter of a shoemaker whose ancestry on her mother’s side has been traced to the early 1500s. It was a new beginning for both of them - George was a widower at 35, and Sarah was a widow at 31.
There was a significant and long-standing British Army presence in Taunton. But the stay in rural Somerset would not be a long one. On 30th April 1857, George was transferred to the 10th Regiment of Foot and posted to Liverpool. It was George’s first posting to a big city, and Liverpool was in its heyday, approaching its prime as the great Atlantic seaport of Britain. In 1860, he completed his 21 years service in the regular army, and became a recruiter for the territorial reserve.
Now once again promoted to staff sergeant, George and his family were not immediately housed in an army barracks. They lived in a house at 5 Byrom Terrace, on the edge of the city center and on a steady slope rising south from the River Mersey. Close to his home, a magnificent museum had opened in 1860. Later the area would be a site for a series of stately public buildings.
It was here in Byrom Terrace that Francis was born in 1858. Second son Alfred was born to George and Sarah in 1860 - the progenitor of the line that would eventually connect with the Berrys and Ottersons a century later. Sons Frederick Wright Giles and Edwin Giles were the next to be born, in 1863 and 1864, making four sons in all. Two sons joined the services - Alfred chose the navy early in his life, while Frederick saw a distinguished military career in the army.
There would never be a daughter. In the early summer of 1866, Sarah died of a uterine hemorrhage that lasted six days, presumably as a result of a miscarriage. George was present when his wife died in the store room of the military barracks in St. Domingo Road, Everton - a Liverpool suburb.
Over the next few years, George’s life would again change dramatically. He would marry for a third time, have a new crop of six more children, leave the army and go into the coal business.
Third marriage
Following the death of Sarah, George Giles married Martha Short Young, a widow 18 years his junior but who had also lost her spouse and was raising a seven-year-old daughter on her own. The partnership would have suited them both. George was a sergeant in a military barracks with four children to look after, including those aged 2, 3 and 6. His four sons needed a mother, and he found her in Martha. It's possible that the couple knew each other previously, because Martha was from Bath, Somerset - the same county where he married Sarah.
Martha was young enough to have six more children with George over the next 13 years - three sons and three daughters. After 18 years in the reserve, George's health failed and he was discharged at his own request. He had served for almost 40 years in the army.