Arthur is one of the few of our war casualties who died in England.

He was born in 1882 in Aldreth, Cambridgeshire, one of fifteen children of shepherd Thomas Hostler and his wife, Sarah Hazel. He attended Aldreth School from the age of 5, and although we do not know when he left, he was working as a teamster on a farm by 1901.

In the 1911 census, still single, he was living in Paddington, London, and working as a carpet porter, but the following year he married Nellie Parslow there. They were still there in 1915 when their only child, Leonard, was born.

He enlisted in June 1916, serving in the 111th Siege Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery, which had been in France since May of 1916, although he would not have joined them immediately as he would have undergone several months training in England. Siege Batteries were equipped with heavy howitzers, firing large calibre high explosive shells in a high trajectory. They could vary considerably in size, with the largest being railway- or road-mounted 12 inch howitzers. Siege Batteries were most often employed in destroying or neutralising the enemy artillery, as well as putting destructive fire down on strongpoints, dumps, store, roads and railways.

Arthur was discharged with a Silver War Badge on 4th June 1919, with a code on the record showing that he was ‘surplus to military requirements (having suffered impairment since entry)’.

He died only 8 days later, from Gastric Carcinoma and Exhaustion, which was apparently accepted as resulting from his service, and is buried in Paddington Old Cemetery in Kilburn.

Rosemary Gorman