Name
Arthur George Jenkins
1898
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/08/1917
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
G/14342
Royal Sussex Regiment
12th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
DUHALLOW A.D.S. CEMETERY
I.A.32
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
REST IN PEACE
UK & Other Memorials
Whitwell Village Memorial, St Paul's Walden Memorial, Not on the Preston memorials
Pre War
Arthur George Jenkins was born in Preston, Herts in 1898, the son and eldest child of George Jenkins, a gardener, and Ada (nee Boston). On the 1901 Census the family of parents, Arthur and his sister Lizzie May (born 1900) were living at Frogmore End, Kings Walden, Herts where his father was an Under Gardener (at Kings Walden Bury). By the 1911 Census the family now consisting of parents, Arthur, Lizzie May, Frank James (born 1903), John Leslie (born 1905), Herbert Victor (born 1908) and Edith Ada (born 1910) were living in Whitwell, Herts. Arthur was aged 13 and still a scholar. There would be further additions to the family of Thomas William (born 1911). Minnie Gertrude (born 1914) and William Cecil (born 1916).
His parents later lived at 17 Stanley Road, Eastbourne, Sussex and 63 Hurst Road, Eastbourne.
Wartime Service
No Service Record was found. Arthur enlisted at Eastbourne, Sussex and after his training was posted as Private G/14342 to 12 (Service) Battalion (2nd South Down) Battalion the Royal Sussex Regiment, which had been in France since Mar 1916 as part of 116 Brigade, 39 Division.
Arthur was killed in action on 1 Aug 1917, aged 19, during the Battle of the Pilckem Ridge (31 Jul-2 Aug 1917, opening part of 3rd Battle of Ypres known as Passchendaele), during the early advance and capture of St Julien.
Additional Information
His father, Mr G Jenkins, 17 Stanley Road, Eastbourne, ordered his headstone inscription: "REST IN PEACE".
His father received a War Gratuity of £3 and his mother his arrears of £7 12s 8d. His mother initially received a pension of 3s 6d a week which was later increased to 5 shillings a week. (N.B. his mother's address was later changed on pension records from Hurst Road, Eastbourne to 21 Council Cottages, Whitwell, Hitchin, Herts.)
N.B. Date of death varies on some records between 31 Jul and 1 Aug 1917.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer, Neil Cooper
