Name
Arthur Britton (poss Brittain)
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
25/09/1916
35
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
27445
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 2C
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin War Memorial, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour, Hitchin, Graveley War Memorial
Pre War
He was the son of Joseph Ward and Sarah Charlotte Brittain of 39, Bunyan Road, Hitchin.
Before joining up he was a market gardener in Graveley. He was born in New Cross in Kent, resided in Graveley and enlisted in Bedford.
Wartime Service
Arthur received the Regimental Number 27445. He served in the 1st Battalion of the Regiment which was in the 15th Brigade of the 5th Division, XIV Corps. He had only been in France a few weeks when he was killed in action.
His date of death coincides with an attack towards Morval in which the Bedfords captured the Sunken Road east of Albert and Guillemont only ten minutes after zero hour, following up an initial attack made by the Norfolks. The Cheshires then passed through the Bedfords and took Morval. The Bedfords sustained 114 casualties that day.
He has no known grave, but is remembered on Pier 2, Face C of the great Thiepval Memorial to the Missing in France.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
