Name
Arthur Steeley
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
07/10/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Rifleman
4803
London Regiment (Post Office Rifles)
1/8th (City of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 9 C and 9 D.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin, Not on the Letchworth memorials
Pre War
Born in Hitchin, he lived in Letchworth and enlisted in Hitchin. He was a skilled saddler, but later became a postman in Hitchin. At night he manned the telephone exchange in Letchworth.
His wife was Mrs E. Steeley of 2, Telegraph Terrace, Hitchin. They had two daughters; Hilda and Marie.
Wartime Service
Arthur was posted to the 8th (City of London) Battalion of the London Regiment known as the Post Office Rifles which, at the time of his death, was in the 140th Brigade of the 47th Division. He went to France in June 1915 and bore the Regimental Number 4803.
He was first reported as missing, but later as killed in action during an attack on Snag Trench in front of the Butte de Warlencourt in the Somme Sector. Two Companies of the Battalion were almost completely wiped out on the 7th October 1916, only seven men surviving. The overall casualties for the Battalion on that day were 411 which was over half the fighting strength of the whole Battalion.
He has no known grave and is remembered on Pier and Face 9C or 9D on the great Thiepval Memorial to the Missing in France.
Additional Information
His wife Ellen known as Eleanor or Nell died in 1949 and is buried in Hitchin Cemetery and the stone mentions that her husband was killed in action on October 7th, 1917 (Hitchin Cemetery grave NW 320). A family story relates that the two daughters at one time attended a spiritualist meeting and were told that their father had died in the war through stepping on a landmine and was blown to pieces.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
