Name
Arthur John Pilsworth
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
25/08/1918
33
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
4178
Welsh Guards
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BUCQUOY ROAD CEMETERY, FICHEUX
VII.B.23
France
Headstone Inscription
Though distance divides, fond memories cling
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial,
Holy Saviour Church War Memorial, Radcliffe Rd., Hitchin,
St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin,
British Schools Museum Memorial, Hitchin,
St Faith’s Church Memorial, Walsworth
Pre War
He was born in Cambridge, the son of John and Mary Ann Pilsworth of 27 Hart Road Leicester. He was married and had a twin son and daughter, but his wife had died in 1913.
Before the war he had been an apprentice at the International Stores in Hitchin and later transferred to a branch in Nottingham. After that he moved to the Home and Colonial Stores in Leicester. In January 1918 enlisted in Hinchley in Leicestershire.
Wartime Service
Arthur was posted to the 1st Battalion of the Welsh Guards with the Number 4178.
He had only been serving in France for eleven weeks when he was killed in action. The date of his death coincides with the end of the Battle of Albert when the Welsh Guards were in the 3rd Guards Brigade as part of the Guards Division of VI Corps in the 3rd Army. At 4.55am on the 23rd August 1918 the Guards Division supported by a Battalion of tanks attacked a ridge at the southern end east of the start line Becquerelle-Boyelles-Hamelincourt following a creeping barrage of 84% shrapnel and 16% smoke, fired by 17 Brigades of Field Artillery. The obstacle attained by 9.25am they crossed the Sensee River and seized the St. Leger Ridge by the afternoon. They later advanced on Ecoust. On the 25th the Welsh Guards were in St. Leger Wood but were held up by large numbers of machine-guns which caused many casualties.
He was buried in Plot 7, Row B, Grave 23 in the Bucquoy Road Cemetery, Ficheux, south west of Arras in France.
Additional Information
A private inscription on the stone reads “Though distance divides, fond memories cling". He had two brothers, Ernest and Sidney, who were serving in the army.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
