Name
Arthur Charles Fitzjohn
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
241257
The Buffs (East Kent) Regiment
1/5th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Biography
Arthur Fitzjohn was born at Abbots Langley in the winter of 1886. He was one of eight children (three sons and five daughters) born to Charles and Eliza Fitzjohn. At the time of the 1891 Census the Fitzjohn family lived at Bank Cottages at Bedmond. They had lived there for over twenty years. Charles was a Widower as Eliza died in the winter of 1888 and worked as a Farm Labourer. By the time of the 1901 Census Arthur worked as an Agricultural Horseman on a Farm and was living at Beech Tree Cottages on the Hempstead Road, Leverstock Green. His father Charles remarried on 11th March 1893, and in the summer of 1894 Norman Frederick Fitzjohn was born. Norman, who became better known as Fred Fitzjohn also served in the Great War.
Arthur joined the British Army before the War, and was recorded in the 1911 Census serving with the Bedfordshire Infantry Regiment at the Maida Barracks at Aldershot. So although the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour first listed Arthur in December 1914, it did not indicate which unit he had joined. Arthur’s Medal Roll noted that he arrived in France on 16th August 1914, the date when the 1st Bedfordshire’s arrived at Le Harve, so it can be assumed that at this point he was serving with the Bedfordshire’s. In May 1915 the Roll of Honour listed him serving with the 1st Bedfordshire’s, and his Medal Roll showed that he transferred between the Bedfordshire’s and the 1/5th Buffs (East Kent Regiment) for the remainder of the War. Arthur was listed in the Autumn 1918 Absent Voter Record, serving with the 1/5th Buffs, and his address was given at Bedmond.
Arthur Fitzjohn survived the War, as did his brother Frederick.
Acknowledgments
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org
