Name
Arthur Shortland
2 March 1899
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
22/08/1918
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
205885
London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) *1
1st (City of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ST. SEVER CEMETERY EXTENSION, ROUEN
Q.III, B, 13.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Watford Borough Roll of Honour, Not on the Abbots Langley memorials
Pre War
Arthur Shortland was born on 2 March 1899 in Abbots Langley, Herts, the son of John and Julia Shortland (nee Chandler) and baptised on 21 May 1899 at St Lawrence’s Church, Abbot’s Langley, where his parents had married on 24 August 1878.
On the 1901 Census, aged 2, he was living with his family at Garden Road, Abbot’s Langley, consisting of both parents and seven siblings. His father was working as a general labourer.
His father died at the end of 1910, aged 60 and on the 1911 Census he was living with his widowed mother at 3 Garden Road, Abbots Langley with siblings Joseph, John, Alice and Agnes. He attended Callowland Board School, Watford, from 13 November 1911 to 24 June 1913.
His mother later lived at 5 Diamond Road, Watford, Herts but died in 1922
Wartime Service
He was living at Stoke Newington, Hackney, East London, when he enlisted in Shaftesbury Street, London, originally joining the London Regiment, 4th Battalion, later being posted to the 2nd/4th (City of London) Battalion London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers).
Arthur died at No. 1 Australian General Hospital on 22 August 1918 from wounds received in action and is buried in St Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, France.
Additional Information
Although Arthur’s service record appears to be one that was destroyed in the Blitz of World War Two, There is an article about, and a Death announcement for, Arthur in the West Herts and Watford Observer dated 7 September 1918.
His mother received a war gratuity of £14 10s and pay owing of £12 6s 8d. She also received a pension in respect of Arthur and his brother Frederick who both died of wounds, but the amount of pension is not known.
Brother to Frederick who died of wounds in Rawalpindi, India (now Pakistan) in 1917, and brother to (John (Jack), who served with the East Surrey Regiment from 1914, was wounded three times, invalided out of the army in October 1917 as no longer physically fit for war service. He was awarded the Silver War Badge and died in 1929 aged 35.
* 1 London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers)
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk), Jonty Wild
