Name
Arthur John Gillett
1882
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
11/04/1917
34
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
26224
King’s Shropshire Light Infantry
5th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY
XXII. G. 25A
France
Headstone Inscription
THE DAY THOU GAVEST LORD IS ENDED
UK & Other Memorials
Royston Town War Memorial, Queen's Road Methodist Church Memorial, Royston, Not on the Ashwell memorials
Pre War
Arthur John Gillett was born in 1882 in Ashwell, Hertfordshire, the son and youngest child of Samuel and Eliza Gillett. He was one of eight children.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at 8 Factory Cottages, Royston, (then in the civil parish of Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire), where his father was working as a factory labourer. They remained at Factory Cottages, Royston in 1901 and 1911 and Arthur was the only child living at home with his parents. He was then working as a printer's compositor for a newspaper.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Royston and initially served with the Notts & Derbyshire Regiment under reg. no. 5790, later transferring to the King's Shropshire Light Infantry.
He died from wounds received in action on 11 April 1917 aged 34 and is buried in Etaples Military Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
His mother received a war gratuity of £3 10s and his father received pay owing of £4 18s 9d. Pension cards exist with his mother as dependant but no amount of pension is recorded.
Arthur is also commemorated on the family grave in Royston Church Additional Burial Ground. His part of the inscription reads:
ALSO OF PTE. ARTHUR JOHN GILLETT. SON OF THE ABOVE [Samuel & Eliza Gillett]
KING’S SHROPSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY WHO DIED OF WOUNDS IN FRANCE APRIL 11TH 1917. AGE 34 YEARS.
DIED AT ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY.
PEACE PERFECT PEACE
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Adrian Pitts, Paul Johnson
