Name
Arthur James Negus
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
26/08/1918
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
266365
Hertfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BAGNEUX BRITISH CEMETERY, GEZAINCOURT
IV. E. 2.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hertford Town Memorial, Bengeo War Memorial, Bengeo War Memorial Plaque Holy Trinity Church, Bengeo, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
Born in 1894 or 95 in Clavering, Essex son of Alan and Eliza Negus and he had four brothers and three sisters.
In 1901 he was living in Amwell Place Farm, Little Amwell and his father was employed as a horseman on the farm. By 1911 they were living at 34 Church Road, Bengeo and Arthur was a farm labourer.
Wartime Service
Enlisted at Hertford. Formerly 4492 Hertfordshire Regt.
He went to France in 1915 where his unit fought at Festubert and Loos. In 1916 they were in action during the Somme campaign at the Battle for Ancre and for The Ancre Heights in October and November.
1917 saw them heavily engaged on the opening day of third Ypres (Passchendaele) when the battalion lost 450 men in the assault on St Julien part of the battle for Pilckem.
They were also involved in the battles for Langemarck, the Menin Road and Polygon Wood. In 1918 they took part in the 2nd Battle of the Somme, part of the German spring offensive, and then in the Battle of the Lys before being withdrawn and reformed as they had suffered heavy casualties.
They then took part in the opening battles of the 100 Days Offensive, the Battle for Albert in August and it was during this that Arthur was killed, dying of wounds.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Terry & Glenis Collins
