Other Information
His family background was both diverse and colourful.
He was a great-grandson of John Trelawny, (friend of the poets Byron and Shelley).
His maternal grandmother was Zella Trelawny, the only surviving child of Trelawny’s third wife Tersitza, who was the sister of the Greek warlord Odysseus, with whom Trelawny served during the Greek war of independence (Byron died on the way).
George was baptised in St Johns Anglican Cathedral in Buenos Aires.
His Scottish father worked for an insurance company in that city and had married a local lady in 1890.
They are noted in the 1895 census of Argentina, but in 1901 George and his mother, older sister and younger brother were living at 34 Hove Villas, Hove, Sussex.
It is unclear where his father was at the time, but the family subsequently went back to Argentina.
At the centenary of his death, on 20 June 2016, a memorial plaque was unveiled at Port Laing by Vesta Darnell (2nd Cousin of Paton) in the presence of representatives of 2SCOTS, Regimental Association, North Queensferry School and local people.
Scotsman 24 June 1916.
“An Officer’s heroic act.
The remains of Lieut. George Cyril Olgum Paton, Royal Scots Fusiliers, were interred with military honours yesterday afternoon. Lieut. Paton was engaged on Tuesday evening with a number of men who were practising bomb-throwing.
A live bomb was thrown and it fell short of the objective. Recognising the imminence of danger to several men, Lieut. Paton rushed forward for the purpose of throwing the bomb further away. He was in the act of lifting the missile when it exploded.
But for the promptitude with which Lieut. Paton acted, several men, who had got out of harm’s way on being warned by the heroic officer, would have been killed or seriously injured.
Lieut. Paton, who is a cousin of Dr Cairncross, Dunfermline, came to this country from Buenos Ayres to enlist shortly after the outbreak of war.”
