Name
Arthur West
7 June 1883
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
23/08/1918
35
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
60153
Royal Fusiliers *1
13th (County of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ACHIET-LE-GRAND COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION
III. H. 19.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin, Leverstock Green National School Memorial, Not on the Hemel Hempstead memorials
Pre War
Arthur West was born on 7 June 1883 in Leverstock Green, Herts, (St Michael's) the son of Thomas and Emily Annie West, and baptised there on 14 October 1883. His mother died in 1890 aged 35 and on the 1891 Census he was living with his widowed father in Leverstock Green where his father was working as a general servant. Jean Green was living with them as a housekeeper.
He was living as a boarder at the home of Richard and Martha Baldwin at 61 Cotterells Road, Boxmoor on the 1901 Census and working as an upholsterer's apprentice. By the 1911 Census he and his wife Betty were living at 7 Alfred Street, Dunstable, Beds and he was working as an upholsterer. They had a boarder Florence Nicholls living with them who was a milliner. They later lived at 84, Grove Road, Hitchin, Herts and he was employed as an upholsterer with T. Brooker & Son in Walsworth Road, Hitchin.
Wartime Service
Arthur enlisted in Hitchin in June 1916 and was initially posted to the Bedford Regiment with the Number 29809, later transferring to the 13th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) and given the Regimental Number 60153.
He went to France in September 1916. In early 1918 he had been wounded in the foot through falling back into a trench. The 13th Battalion was part of the 112th Brigade in the 37th Division of IV Corps in the 3rd Army. At the time of Arthur's death the Division had attacked the brickworks and a railway embankment west of Achiet le Grand and Bihucourt in the Battle of Albert. They then captured the two villages. The Division captured 1,150 prisoners that day in very heavy fighting. It was one of the greatest days experienced by the Battalion.
He was killed in action on 23 August 1918 and was buried in Plot 3, Row H, Grave 19 in Achiet-le-Grand Communal Cemetery Extension in France. He is one of 31 men who died that day from the 13th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers and who are buried in the same cemetery.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £9 10s and pay owing of £9 18s 4d. She also received a pension of £1 6s 8d a week.
*1 Believed more correctly, (County of London)
Bn. London Regiment (Kensington).
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild, Barbara Chapman,
