Name
Arthur Ernest Boardman
1893
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
18/11/1914
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Corporal
2270
Hertfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
'E' Coy.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star (with Clasp & Roses), British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 54 and 56.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
NA
UK & Other Memorials
Letchworth Town Memorial, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
Arthur Ernest Boardman was born in Hove in 1893 (baptised 25 Mar 1894) in Hove, Sussex, the son of Leonard Duncan Boardman, stockbrokers’s clerk, and Eliza Ann (nee Turner), of 64, Clarendon Road, Hove.
On the 1891 Census the family of parents, Amy Josephine (born 1886) and Emily Ethel (born 1888) were living at 10, Roslyn Road, Camberwell, Surrey.
On the 1901 Census the family of mother, Amy Josephine (born 1886, dressmaker), Arthur, Alfred Denyer (born 1901, nurse child), Jessie Kate Ball (born 1878, cook) and Ernest Ball (born 1901) were living at 64, Clarendon Road, Hove.
On the 1911Census Arthur was a jounalist living with his family of parents and Alfred Denyer (now an adopted son), at 25 Tennis Road, Hove, Sussex.
By the 1921 Census his parents Leonard was an accountant and Eliza, a schoolteacher were living at "Glenmaye," 238, Croydon Road, Caterham Valley, Surrey.
Arthur Boardman was, like many men living in Letchworth in 1914, a native Londoner. With the emergence of the world’s first Garden City in Letchworth, came opportunities for employment and progression.
Arthur grew up in Herne Hill, London, before joining the influx of people to Letchworth in August 1913 when he joined the sales team of the biggest firm in the town, The Spirella Company of Great Britain. Spirella were probably the best known women’s corset manufacturers in the world in the early part of the 20th Century and so Arthur’s job as part of the sales team, and as personal secretary to the sales manager Mr John Coles would have been a very busy one.
Nevertheless, Arthur found enough spare time to join the local Territorial Army unit when he moved to the area. He joined ‘E’ Company of 1st/1st Battalion, Hertfordshire Regiment as Private 2770 on 27 Jun 1912 with whom he trained at the weekends and at an annual summer camp in Hertford. He was promoted to Corporal on 25 Jun 1913.
Wartime Service
When war arrived in the summer of 1914, Arthur, and the rest of the 1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment were sent into immediate training for war. 21 year old Arthur, as a Corporal, would have been involved in training the men of his company in musketry, trench digging, bayonet fighting any many other tactics, quite a responsibility for such a young man.
After completing their initial training, the Herts Regiment boys went home to their respective towns before embarking to the Western Front to join in the early months of the war. The men of ‘E’ company returned to Letchworth and Hitchin (where the company was based) and said their farewells.
‘E’ Company left for dover by rail from the train station at Letchworth Garden City around 4th November 1914, they were photographed at the station that day.
The Herts Territorials sailed from Dover to Le Havre on 5th November 1914 and arrived at the front to take part in the closing stages of the First Battle of Ypres.
The Battalion ‘war diary’ records the following:
5-11-14. The Bn left BURY ST. EDMONDS in two trains and in the evening embarked on the "CITY OF CHESTER", sailing at midnight.
6-11-14. Arrived at HAVRE on the morning and landed at HAVRE about 12 Midday and marched 3 ½ miles to No.2 REST CAMP.
7-11-14. Remained at REST CAMP. [Comment; Battalions first death in France - Private 2682 Charles CASTLE of Ware died from illness]
8-11-14. Bn entrained early and left in one train for ST. OMAR [sic; ST. OMER] at 9.19pm.
9-11-14. The Bn arrived at ST. OMAR [sic; St. OMER] at 7am and marched to billets about 3 miles away at TATINGHAM.
10-11-14. The Commander in Chief came up for a few minutes and inspected one of the Companies.
11-11-14. The Bn moved out to prepare an entrenched position. Shortly after arrival received orders to proceed by Motor Bus to VLAMERTINGHE. On arrival marched through YPRES and bivouacked KILO 3 ¾ Mile West of HOOGE. The Bn came under shrapnel fire passing through YPRES and had one Officer and one man struck but only one man needed medical attention.
12-11-14. Bn moved about 2 miles along the YPRES-ZONNEBEKE Railway and entrenched in a wood for cover against shrapnel. Returned to bivouac.
13-11-14. Remained in bivouac (and had an unburst shrapnel shell through the farm and one man was struck by splinters).
14-11-14. The Bn moved in the evening to NONNE-BOSSEN and took over trenches from the Oxfordshire Light Infantry - 3 Companies in trenches, 5 in support.
15-11-14. Same position. One man wounded.
16-11-14. Handed over our trenches to 153rd Regiment and marched back to 3 KILO YPRES-MELLEN [sic; MENIN] Road.
17-11-14. We were shelled in the morning and had to leave the farm shortly after had one man killed and two severely wounded. In the evening we went into the trenches again & took over from the 1st Royal Dragoons and 10th Hussars 1 mile S.E. of ZILLEBEKE. Had 4 Companies in the trenches, 1 in support, 1 in reserve, remaining 2 at KILO 3.
The next day’s entry records the following:
18-11-14. Remained in trenches. Corporal Boardman [2270 Ernest Arthur BOARDMAN] killed and one man missing. [Comment; Missing man was Private 2238 Frederick James DARLOW of Royston who was found to have been killed In action]
More information on what happened on 18th November 1914 is provided in contemporary newspaper reports.
It appears from the records featured above that Arthur was initially reported as killed by the enemy, subsequently it transpired that he had been killed by a nervous British Machine Gunner. It is likely that Arthur was silhouetted in a position in front of the gunners as he was out of his trench and handing out rations, as a result he was shot and killed instantly.(*1)
Arthur Ernest Boardman became the first man to be killed In Action whilst serving with the Hertfordshire Regiment in WW1, over the next four years more than a thousand others would share his fate.
*1 A lengthy article appeared in the local paper on the 5 December 1914, with variations on other local papers later, it was based on an interview with a wounded Letchworth soldier, Arthur Garner, part of which describes the death of Arthur Boardman, the relevant text appears below:
"A LETCHWORTH CORPORAL KILLED . . . Corporal Boardman was killed, shot down by English maxime. He was on commissariat duty, and was warned to keep out of range of the guns, but he replied “I must look after the feeding!” Going right in the way of them was shot down. Two of his comrades buried him, while they were doing so a German sniper in a tree was attempting to pick them off. So poor was his aim, however, that they were unhurt, and the only hit he made was through the dead body of poor Boardman.
The brave youth was, we learned, one of the most promising of the Spirella staff in Letchworth, where he lived (although a Londoner). He was very popular amongst his mates, and Mr. Stanton, the managing director, was deeply affected (when he saw Garner on Wednesday morning) at the loss of so loyal and clever a helper."
Additional Information
War Gratuity of £4 and arrears of £3 15s 1d was paid to his mother.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Dan Hill, Louise Fryer, Jonty Wild, Dan Hill
