George was born in Ormskirk, the only son of George Walmsley Blundell, a cotton merchant, and his second wife, Ann Minto, who died at the time of his birth in 1916. His father who was born in 1858, had several children by his first marriage, some of whom had already married before he married Ann in Durham, in 1912. It is likely that Ann was in domestic service.

George Walmsley married for a third time, in 1920. No doubt, he needed someone to bring up his young son and Ethel M Burge filled that position as she is named in his obituary notice in The Times as his stepmother. She, also, seems to have been in domestic service.  When George Walmsley died in 1927, he left £336,823-14-10. The family lived in Aughton near Ormskirk.

George Minto was educated at Repton and matriculated in 1935. He took a 3rd in History in 1938.

In January 1940 he was commissioned in The King's Regiment (Liverpool) and in the following October was at the 165th Officer Cadet Training Unit. In November 1942, he transferred to the Army Air Corps, 1st Parachute Battalion.

He was an Intelligence Officer with the rank of Captain and attached to the 4th Parachute Brigade when they landed in Arnhem on 17 September 1944 as part of Operation Market Garden. He was killed on 20 September.

He is buried in the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery Plot 27. B. 7