Name
Arthur Westell
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
27/03/1918
28
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Rifleman
R/5075
King's Royal Rifle Corps
12th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ROUY-LE-PETIT CHURCHYARD
North East side of old church.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Rickmansworth Town Memorial, St Mary’s Church, Rickmansworth Roll of Honour in All Saints Church, Highfield, Oxford
Pre War
Arthur Westell or Westall was born in Barton, then a hamlet of Headington, on 9 August 1890. He was the son of Richard George Westell (born in St Ebbe’s/ New Hinksey in 1860/1) and Fanny Cross (born in Barton in 1864 and baptised with her twin brother Felix at St Andrew’s Church in Headington on 28 August).
Arthur’s father Richard George Westell grew up in St Ebbe’s, where his widowed mother was a laundress. Arthur's mother Fanny Cross grew up at Windmill Hill (Bayswater Road) Headington, where her father was a labourer and her mother a laundress, and by 1881 Fanny (16) had joined her mother in laundry work there. They were married at St Andrew’s Church in Old Headington on 12 September 1887 and had ten children.
After their marriage in 1887, Arthur’s parents Richard & Fanny Westell lived in the hamlet of Barton, which was in the parish of St Andrew. By 1891 they had moved to New Headington on the south side of the London Road, which at that time was also in that parish.
At the time of the 1891 census Arthur (seven months) was living at 31 New High Street with his father Richard (30), who was a butcher employed by someone else, his mother Fanny (26), who was working on her own account at home as a laundress, and his elder sister Gertrude (2).
The family was living at 49 St Clement’s Street in Oxford in the 1896, but by 1899 they were back in Headington again.
At the time of the 1901 census Arthur (10) was living at the present 17 Bateman Street (then 4 Oxford Terrace, East Street). with his father Richard (38), who was now a gardener, his mother Fanny (38), who was now working for someone else as a laundress, and his siblings Gertie (12), Katie (9), William (8), Elsie (6), George (2), and Aubrey (three months).
By 1909 they had moved around the corner to 3 Gardiner Street (then called South Street).
Arthur’s mother Fanny Westell died at the age of 45 in 1909 and was buried in Headington Cemetery on 19 June.
At the time of the 1911 census Arthur (20) was working as a domestic gardener and living at Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, where he was boarding with the Higgs family at Stocker’s Lodge.
Arthur’s father Richard George Westell died at the age of 54 in 1915 and was buried in Headington Cemetery on 2 June.
Wartime Service
Enlisted on 14 Sep 1914 at Marylebone, London.
In the First World War Arthur Westell served as a Rifleman in the 12th Battalion of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps (Service No. R/5075). He died in France in France at the age of 27 on 27 March 1918.
He was buried at Rouy-Le-Petit Churchyard (at the north-east side of the old church), and is remembered on the Roll of Honour of All Saints’ Church, Highfield and the Rickmansworth Town Memorial at St Mary’s Church, Rickmansworth.
Additional Information
For more family information and photographs visit http://www.headington.org.uk/history/war/allsaints/westell_arthur.html
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Nicholas Washington, Stephanie Jenkins
