Name
Arthur Frank Gurney Wells
1878
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
19/02/1919
40
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
024578
Royal Army Ordnance Corps
74th Coy.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BLARGIES COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION
I. G. 1.
France
Headstone Inscription
UNTIL THE DAY BREAK
UK & Other Memorials
Tring Town Memorial, St Peter & St Paul Church Roll of Honour, Tring, New Mill Baptist Church Memorial, Tring
Pre War
Arthur Frank Gurney Wells (sometimes known as Frank) was born in 1878 in Tring, Herts, the son of William and Caroline Wells.
On the 1881 Census the family were living at 36 Charles Street, Tring, where his father was working as a general labourer. They remained there in 1891 at which time 12 year old Arthur was working as a canvas weaver's assistant. By the 1901 Census he was living at The Hillocks, Aylesbury Road, Tring. Arthur was listed with his father and sister Florence. The family were said to be lodgers of Harry Gurney and his wife Elizabeth. Arthur was then working as a tailor. (His mother was not listed with them and may have died.)
He married Lillie Clark in early 1905 and on the 1911 Census they were living at 31 Albert Street, Tring with their two children, Constance and Kathleen. They later had a son Harold Arthur James Wells in 1915.
Wartime Service
Arthur joined up in November 1916 and initially served with the Rifle Brigade under reg. no. 1379, later being transferred to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps where he worked as a regimental tailor.
He died from influenza on 19 February 1919 at Stationary Hospital at Abancourt, France and is buried in Blargies Communal Cemetery Extension, France.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £13 and two payments of pay owing totalling £16 10s 3d.
There is another Arthur Wells, born in Tring in 1886, who served with the Royal Navy as a Stoker 1st Class and was lost at sea on 22 September 1914, aged 28, on HMS Aboukir.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, tringlocalhistory.org.uk
