Name
Ernest George Arnold
1889
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/06/1917
28
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
370950
London Regiment (Post Office Rifles)
2nd/8th (City of London) Bn.
'B' Coy.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ARRAS MEMORIAL
Bay 10.
France
Headstone Inscription
He has no Headstone. He is commemorated on the Arras Memorial to the missing.
UK & Other Memorials
Cheshunt Town Memorial, Christ Church (formerly Holy Trinity Church) Memorial, Waltham Cross
Pre War
Ernest George Arnold was born in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, in 1889, son of Thomas Arnold and Ellen Arnold (nee Pateman). One of six children, four brothers and one sister. Ernest was Baptised in the Parish of Waltham Cross, Herts, on 22 May 1889.
His father was employed by the Enfield Royal Small Arms Factory (ERSAF).
1891 Census records Ernest aged 1, living with his parents, and brother Tom (4) at, 17, Park Lane, Cheshunt, Herts. His uncle William J. Pateman was living with the family. In the 1901 Census records Ernest aged 11, living with his parents, and four siblings at, 33, Eleanor Road, Waltham Cross, Herts.
By 1911 Ernest and the family where now living at, 8 Lawrence Villas, Swanfield Road, Waltham Cross, Herts. Ernest was employed by the General Post Office, as a Postman.
Wartime Service
Ernest enlisted at London, joining the 2nd/8th Battalion, London Regiment (Post Office Rifles) with the service number formerly 2915 then 370950. The Battalion was formed mostly of Post Office volunteers. Seeing service on the Western Front.
He was killed in Action on 1st June 1917, he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial to the missing.
Additional Information
His effects of £10-3s-6d, Pay Owing and a War Gratuity of £12-10s-00d, went to his father Thomas Arnold.
Two of his brothers Sidney and Tom were also killed in the war. Private M2/176372 Sidney W. Arnold, of the Army Service Corps, died on 4 May 1917, at sea off the coast of Italy, and Private 40031 Tom Arnold, of the Suffolk Regiment, died on 15 September 1917, in France.
The three brothers who died are also commemorated on their parents’ grave in Cheshunt Burial Ground. Their inscription reads:
“LEST WE FORGET
In Loving Memory
OF
PTE SIDNEY W. ARNOLD, A.S.C. DROWNED AT SEA MAY 4TH 1917, AGED 23.
L/CPL. ERNEST G. ARNOLD LONDON REGT. KILLED IN ACTION JUNE 2ND 1917, AGED 28.
PTE. TOM ARNOLD SUFFOLK REGT. KILLED IN ACTION SEP. 15TH 1917, AGED 30
THE BELOVED SONS OF THOMAS AND ELLEN ARNOLD."
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
