Born in Wingham in 1888 to Joseph and Harriet (nee Wootton), Arthur was the youngest and only boy of their 7 children.
Working as a labourer, he enlisted with the 4th Reinforcements, 18th Battalion in Newcastle on the 7th of July 1915, aged 27 years and 6 months. Arthur’s next of kin was listed as his father of Bowman River, Gloucester. Having departed Sydney aboard the ‘HMAT A8 Argyllshire’, on the 30th of September 1914, the 4th Reinforcements were bound for Egypt.
The 18th Battalion was raised at Liverpool in New South Wales in March 1915 as part of the 5th Brigade. It left Australia in early May and trained in Egypt from mid-June until on the 22nd of August they landed at ANZAC Cove The last members of the battalion left Gallipoli on the 20th of December to return to Egypt.
On the 10th of January 1916, Arthur was taken on strength with ‘C’ Company, 18th Battalion at Tel el Kabir and on the 18th of March the battalion proceeded to join the BEF at Alexandria, arriving at Marseilles on the 25th.
The 18th Battalion took part in its first major battle at Pozieres between the 25th of July and the 5th of August. The battalion returned to the Pozieres trenches for a second time in late August. After a spell in a quieter sector of the front in Belgium, the 2nd Division including the 5th Brigade, came south again in October. On the 15th of November 1916 Arthur was promoted to Lance Corporal to complete establishment.
Through a very bleak winter, the 18th Battalion was spared from having to mount an attack across the quagmire that the Somme battlefield had become but did have to continue manning the front. In early 1917 the 18th Battalion was involved in the follow-up of German forces during their retreat to the Hindenburg Line and was involved in some particularly heavy fighting around Warlencourt in late February. It was in this fighting that on the 26th of February 1917 that Arthur was ‘Killed In Action’.
Arthur’s personal effects returned to the family consisted of: Identity Discs, Pocket Book, Cards, Balaclava Cap 2, Comb, Mitten, Housewife, Handkerchief.
