Name
Fred Arnold
18 Jun 1888
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
08/03/1918
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
328329
Suffolk Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LONDON CEMETERY, NEUVILLE-VITASSE
Wancourt Road Cem. No.2 Mem. Panel 2.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Whitwell memorials, Clifton War Memorial, Beds
Pre War
Fred Arnold was born on 18 Jun 1888 in Whitwell, Herts, the son of George Arnold and Harriet (nee Tuffnel) and was baptised on 2 Sep 1888 at All Saints Church, St Pauls Walden, Herts.
On the 1891 Census the family of parents and Fred were living at The Keeper's House, Village Street, Watton at Stone, Herts, where his father was a gamekeeper. By 1901 they had moved to White Lodge, St Paul's Walden, Herts. His father was again working as a gamekeeper and the family was now parents, Fred, Horace William (born 1892) and Cecil Clarence (born 1896).
His parents and his brother Cecil had moved to Godmersham, Kent by the 1911 Census. Fred and his brother Horace (were then both boarders with Harriet Mace at 305 Tonbridge Road, Maidstone, Kent and working as Woodcutter's Labourers. They are recorded as Arnoll.
His father later lived at The Chequers Inn, Clifton, nr. Biggleswade, Beds. (from Fred’s pension records).
Wartime Service
No Service Record was found for Fred. It is known that Fred enlisted in Bedford (possibly in 1917) and on some records is recorded as Private 328329, 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment. But his soldier effects records quotes him in the Bedfordshire Regiment. His Service number was in a series allocated to the Suffolk Regiment but particular to the Cambridgeshire Regiment (a wholly Territorial Unit) for the renumbering of Territorials in 1917.
He was killed in action on 8 March 1918.
His name is commemorated on a memorial panel erected in London Cemetery, Neuville-Vitasse, France. Those named on the panel were originally buried in Wancourt Road Cemetery no.2 but their graves were destroyed by shell fire.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £3 and pay owing of £8 14s 8d. He also received a pension of 3s 6d a week.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer, Neil Cooper
Jonty Wild,
