Name
Arthur Baldock
1893
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
31/10/1914
20
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Serjeant
9602
Bedfordshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 31 and 33.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Welwyn Village memorials, Clifton Village Memorial, Bedfordshire
Pre War
Arthur Baldock was born in Welwyn, Herts in 1893, the son of James Thomas and Jane Baldock (nee Millen).
On the 1901 Census the family were living at the Bungalow, Horns Cross in Stone, Dartford, Kent where his father was a brick manufacturer. By 1911 his father had died and his mother was living with his elder brother Henry and his family in Bruce Grove, Tottenham. Arthur was not with them.
On enlistment he gave his address as Clifton, Beds.
His mother later gave her address as 24 Sidney Road, Hornsey, Middx on pension records.
Wartime Service
Arthur enlisted in Bedford and joined the 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment. His service no. 9602 suggests he enlisted between January 1910 and January 1911 and was already a serving soldier at the outbreak of war. The 2nd Battalion was then serving in Pretoria, South Africa and returned to the UK on 9 September 1914. After re-equipping in the Lyndhurst area, they left from Southampton on 5 October 1914 and landed at Zeebrugge, Belgium the following day.
They were soon in action on the Menin Road where they came under rifle and shrapnel fire, suffering their first casualties on 18 October.
Arthur was killed in action on 31 October when the Battalion was near Inverness Copse and had orders to occupy a small fir wood which was attempted but later were ordered to retire back to the Menin-Ypres Road. Several soldiers were killed or wounded.
He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium. He is one of 36 soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment named on the memorial to have died on the same day.
Additional Information
His mother Jane was awarded a war gratuity of £8 and his pay owing of £8 14s 5d. Pension records exist but give no indication of the amount of pension received.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper, Brenda Palmer
Brenda Palmer, Roll of Honour.com, www.bedfordregiment.org.uk, armyservicenumbers.blogspot.com
