Name
Arthur William Bygrave
1884
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
20/05/1915
29
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
4310
Hertfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CHOCQUES MILITARY CEMETERY
I. C. 38.
France
Headstone Inscription
SLEEP IN PEACE DEAR HEART WE'LL MEET AGAIN IN GOD'S GOOD TIME
UK & Other Memorials
Baldock Town Memorial, St Mary the Virgin Church Memorial, Baldock, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
Arthur William Bygrave was born in Stotfold, Bedfordshire in 1884 the son of William and Jane Bygrave (nee Hatton).
On the 1891 Census the family were living at Norton Road, Stotford where his father was working as a farm labourer. Arthur's maternal grandparents, William and Eliza Hatton, were living with them. In 1898 His grandparents were listed as resident in the Biggleswade Union Workhouse in Stotfold because of infirmity, but by 1901 Arthur was recorded as living with his grandparents at Murrell Lane, Stotfold. They were very elderly, both aged 86 and listed as 'paupers'. William and brother Ernest were both living there and William was working as a farm labourer. His parents and other siblings were then living at Brook Street, Stotfold. His grandmother died in 1902 and his grandfather in 1904.
Arthur married Maud Mary Langham in 1908 in the Hitchin registration district (probably in Stotfold. Their daughter Alice Langham had been born in 1907, later to be joined by Frederick (1909), Donald (1911), Arthur (1913) and Frances (1914) .
On the 1911 Census Arthur was living at Church Street, Baldock with his wife and children Alice and Frederick and working as a moulder's labourer at the motor works.
Wartime Service
Arthur enlisted in Hertford on 15 December 1914 and served with the Hertfordshire Regiment. He embarked from Southampton on 18 April 1915 and joined them in the field on 25 April.
He was admitted to the No. 1 Casualty Clearing Station with a gun shot wound to the abdomen and died of his wounds on 20 May 1915. He is buried in Chocques Military Cemetery, Pa de Calais, France.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £3 and pay owing of £1 18s. She also received a pension of £1 4s 6d a week for herself and their five children. Her address was later given as 25, Icknield Way, Baldock, Herts.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Adrian Pitts, Paul Johnson, Jonty Wild
