Name
Arthur Howard
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Biography
Arthur was seriously wounded and believed dead by his mates, but was found to be breathing.
He had extensive head wounds, developed tetanus and other complications.
He was sent back to England a shadow of his former selfand was in Colchester Hospital, then he was sent home to Kinsbourne Green a total wreck.
“Back home in Kinsbourne Green he was able to get the quietness he so badly needed. Mother was so wonderful. She had to feed him with a spoon; he was just helpless. She coped with his terrific moods of depression and violent headaches. His balance was affected and he was unable to walk straight, but rolled from side to side. He always had to wear a steel plate at the back of his head, kept in place by a black band across his forehead. This was because he had no bone at the back of his head. People in Harpenden all knew him and helped him in so many ways. He was one of our Kinsbourne Green boys to suffer most through war. Once he heard a woman remark ‘There goes that man again – he’s drunk again and it’s only ten o’clock in the morning’. He never answered but was hurt and distressed."
Later when he had made a partial recovery he married and ran a grocers' shop in Park Street, Luton with his wife. She died just before the Second World War.
He wa wounded again in the Second World War, not serving, but when a German Land Mine, probably intended for the Vauxhall Motor Works, demolished a huge area of Park Street. His shop and home, which was on the corner of Bailey Street and Park Street was completely flattened. He lost everything and returned to live in Kinsbourne Green.
Additional Information
Arthur's brother Herbert was killed in the war.
Acknowledgments
Harpenden & District Local History Society
(www.harpenden-history.org.uk)
Rosemary Ross
Jonty Wild
