Arthur was my father's first cousin, but none of my immediate family knew of his existence till quite recently. He was the illegitimate son of Great Aunt Mary, a kind and generous lady who provided a Christmas chicken (sent by post !) and summer holidays for her nephews and niece at her lodgings in Storrington, Sussex. She had gone there from Exeter as housekeeper to the monks at Storrington Abbey. Arthur was Aunt Mary's first illegitimate son and born in 1903. He died of tuberculous peritonitis in the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital. He had been serving on HMS Warspite, official no. J89907. (Another illegitimate son, Henry, was born in 1918. Sadly, Henry too died young - of a neglected appendicitis aged only 13.)

Judith Thomas