Name
Arthur James Salmon
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
31/10/1918
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
56803
Lancashire Fusiliers
18th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
VICHTE MILITARY CEMETERY
III. A. 8.
Belgium
UK & Other Memorials
Stanstead Abbotts Memorial
Not on the Wareside memorials
Pre War
Born in Wareside in 1899. Parents William and Mary Salmon of Morley Ponds Cottage, Wareside. He had four brothers and four sisters. He married Rose Wheeler from Little Hormead, Herts. and had 4 children. Worked as a a farm labourer, then a steam wagon driver for Allen and Hanbury’s Pharmaceuticals in Ware. Lived at 73 High Oak Road, Ware.
Enlisted Hertford.
Wartime Service
Enlisted in Hertford. Joined the 18th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, one of the so called Bantam Battalions comprising men who were under regulation size but otherwise fit for duty, many of the men were ex miners. It is likely that Arthur did not join his unit until 1917 by which time the 18th had ceased to be a Bantam unit. During 1917 they fought at Passchendaele and Aulthulst Forest, by 1918 they had also fought at Bapaume. In October 1918 British, French and Belgian units attacked the German forces around the city of Courtrai, this was the start of a very successful Allied assault, and in the next two weeks they advanced almost 45 miles and had reached the Dutch border. Arthur’s unit was then involved in the Final advance against the enemy during which he was killed on 31st October while his battalion was fighting around the town of Tieghem.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Terry Collins, Jonty Wild
