The pioneer racing driver and aviator was born in Dorset and moved to Newcastle on Tyne in the 1880s with his parents. In his younger days he was a swimmer, figure skater and racing cyclist of international standard. With the dawn of the motoring age he set up a business in Newcastle with his partner Robert Lee Jobling. Known as 'George & Jobling' they were main agents for Ford and Argyll cars and made bodies for almost any type of vehicle. Around 1905 he took to racing cars. Very successful in the UK and in Europe he was third in the 1908 Isle of Man TT race (then held for cars).

1909 he took up aviation, then in its infancy, and in 1910 using a plane of his own design built in his factory in Newcastle, he gained pilots license No. 19 from the Royal Aero Club. He returned to his business as a coachbuilder and motor engineer and the firm went on to patent the forerunner of the trolley jack; and George became well known as an 'expert witnesses' in court cases involving serious motoring accidents. In 1911 his most famous racing car came into being, a stripped down Ford Model T that won many races at Brooklands and Saltburn. Later it was fitted with a polished brass cigar-shaped body to become the 'Golden Ford'. George raced this at Brooklands in 1912 before Henry Ford himself.

The business of George & Jobling was founded in 1902 and was housed in the old Robert Stephenson & Co locomotive works in South Street, Newcastle on Tyne. Between 1907 and 1970, the firm had branches in Hexham, Glasgow, Darlington, Bowness and Leeds. George continued his love for racing cars and flying throughout his life and made his last flight less than six months before his death from cancer in September 1951. His funeral in Newcastle was a grand affair and was accompanied by a a flypast of Tiger Moths.

Artefacts remaining include a display at the Robert Stephenson Trust, South Street, Newcastle and his last racing car, the 'Golden Ford' in Buckinghamshire. In 2004 there was a Channel 4 documentary about the restoration of the Golden Ford to its former glory.