Name
Arthur Janes
1885
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
15/09/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
20744
Bedfordshire Regiment
8th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 2 C.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Memorial, Apsley End, John Dickinson & Co Memorial, Apsley Mills, Apsley
Pre War
Arthur Janes was born in 1897 in Edlesborough, nr Leighton Buzzard, Beds, the son of George and Lucy Janes.
On the 1901 Census he was aged 4 years and a boarder at the home of Edward and Sarah Fountain, his uncle and aunt, at Bower Lane, Eaton Bray, Beds.
His cousin Philip Fountain married Charlotte Osbourne in 1903 and on the 1911 Census Arthur, aged 13, was living with them and their son Edward at No. 2 Doolittle, Hemel Hempstead, Herts. He had left school and was working as a Leather Cutter (probably at John Dickinson & Co Ltd)
His mother died in 1912 and he was said to be living in Doolittle, Apsley End, on enlistment and had been employed at John Dickinson & Co Ltd at Apsley Mills.
Wartime Service
Although initially too young to enlist at the outbreak of war, he enlisted in Bedford in June 1915 soon after his 18th birthday and joined the 8th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment. He was sent to Woking, Surrey for training and served in France in early 1916.
He saw action in the trenches around Ypres before moving to Thiepval on the Somme in August. By mid September he was near Longueval in preparation for an assault on High Wood where the Germans were heavily entrenched. The attack began on 15 September but despite fierce fighting the assault failed and the Battalion withdrew.
Casualties were heavy and Arthur was declared missing, believed killed in action. His death was presumed on 15 September 1916 during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette (Battle of the Somme). He was 19 years old.
He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France.
Additional Information
A war gratuity of £5 and pay owing of £5 17s 9d are listed in the Register of Soldiers' Effects but with his mother and father having both died, there is no indication of any relative having claimed it. His cousin Philip Fountain also served, having been in the Fire Brigade and in the Hertfordshire Volunteer Force. He was called up to the Army Reserve on 4 December 1915, mobilised on 27 June 1917 and sent to France on 6 July 1917, despite have had a finger amputated on his right hand. He was sent home on 22 October and discharged on 29 November 1917 as being no longer physically fit for War Service. His medical history stated that although he was not injured in an enemy air raid, a lot of damage was done close by his billet and he suffered from severe headaches and dizziness and tremor in both legs. He died in 1931, aged 51.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org., www.bedfordregiment.org.uk., www.hemelheroes.com.
