George was born in Moss Side, Maghull, but moved with his parents to Butchers Lane, Aughton, when his father James changed employment from a teamster on a farm to being a labourer at a powder works. George enlisted in Ormskirk into the King’s (Liverpool Regiment), and then transferred to the 176th Company of the Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), operating a Lewis gun. Private Greaves was wounded and treated at Mendinghem, near Proven, Belgium, where he succumbed to his wounds.