Name
Arthur Wells
29 May 1886
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
22/09/1914
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Stoker 1st Class
SS/102191
(RFR/CH/B/7240). H.M.S. "Aboukir."
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Navy Star, British War Medal and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CHATHAM NAVAL MEMORIAL
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Tring Town Memorial, St Peter & St Paul Church Roll of Honour, Tring
Pre War
Arthur Wells was born on 29 May 1886 in Tring, Herts, the son of William and Eliza Wells.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at Bulbourne, Tring, where his father was working as a general labourer and his mother as a strawplaiter. By 1901 they had moved to Tring Ford. His father was working as a threshing engine driver and 14 year old Arthur was an errand boy.
He joined the Royal Navy as a Stoker on 9 January 1906 for five years and was transferred to the Royal Fleet Reserve on 9 January 1911.
He married Rose Annie Gertrude Cross on 17 April 1911 in Tring and they had two children, Bertha (1912) and Arthur (1914). They lived at 40 Sheldon Road, Silver Street, Edmonton, London.
Wartime Service
As a Royal Navy reservist Arthur was recalled at the outbreak of war. He served from 13 July 1914 and was killed in action on 22 September 1914 when his ship, HMS Aboukir, was torpedoed by the German U-boat U9 in the North Sea. His body was not recovered for burial and his name is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial, Kent.
Additional Information
His widow initially received a pension of 8 shillings a week, which later rose to 18s 6d a week.
There is another Arthur Wells who was born in Tring in 1878 and lived there until enlistment, when he joined the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. He died of pneumonia on 19 February 1919, aged 40, and is buried in Blargies Communal Cemetery Extension, France.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, tringlocalhistory.org.uk
