8 May 1917: Pte Arthur Chatterton

Arthur Chatterton was born at Theddlethorpe, Lincolnshire in 1881

Location of Theddlethorpe, Lincolnshire CC BY-SA 2.0 OpenStreetMap

Arthur was the son of Jabez, an agricultural labourer and Maria (née Brant) Chatteron. He was born into a family of boys: Arthur had four older brothers at the time of his birth. By the 1891 Census, although only 10 years and 9 months old, Arthur, like three of his older brothers, was working as a worsted spinner.  The family lived at 62 Brunsgill Houses, Glusburn.

8 Hartley St, Glusburn, Sept 2009 (c) Google Street View 2021

By the 1901 census, age 20, only the two younger boys, Arthur (now 20) and younger brother Herbert, lived at home with their parents at 8 Hartley St, Glusburn. Arthur's mother Maria died in 1903. At some point Arthur emigrated to the US. 

Arthur was working as a wool sorter in the USA at the time of the outbreak of war.

With the declaration of war in 1914, Arthur returned to the UK and worked as a munitions worker near Glusburn, Yorkshire before enlisting into the East Yorkshire Regiment at Cross Hills, Yorkshire in early 1916.

A British wiring party carrying corkscrew wire pickets about to cross the railway line between Arras and Feuchy, May 1917 © IWM Q 5258

Arthur was sent on active service to the Western Front in November 1916 and first saw action on the Ancre following the Battle of the Somme. Arthur was next in action during the Battle of Arras in April 1917 where he was severely wounded (gunshot wound to the left leg) during the Battle of Arleux towards the end of the month.

Etaples Military Cemetery (c) Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Arthur died of wounds in one of the General Hospitals at Camiers on 8 May 1917 and is buried in Etaples Military Cemetery, Pas-de-Calais.

27209 Pte Arthur Chatterton, 8th Bn East Yorkshire Regt

8 May 1917

Only younger brother Charles served during the war, with the Duke of Wellington's (West Riding) Regiment. Married with two children he enlisted in December 1915. Older brother Henry was a minister in the United Reform Church. Older brothers Frederick and Tom appear not to have served in the war (they were married men in their 30s).

Initial research by David O'Mara with additional research by Jonathan Vernon 

Sources: England Census 1881, 1891, 1901.