8 April 1918 :  Pte Arthur Algernon Pickles MM

Arthur Algernon Pickles was born in 1896 in Newchurch-in-Pendle, Lancashire

Location of Newchurch-in-Pendle, Lancashire in the north west of England (cc OpenStreetMap)

His parents were John Pickles (an antique dealer and Sexton) and Hannah. Arthur had a much older brother Hartley, as well a younger brother George and a younger sister Mary Lucy. 

View towards Pendle Hill by Karl1547

Before the war Arthur was a cotton weaver. 

His father's first wife had died in 1886. Arthur had to much older half-brothers, Hartley who died in 1983 age 102, and Spensely for whom we have no records.  Arthur had two younger siblings, George who died age 11 in 1909 and Mary who lived to be 87 and died in 1987. 

Arthur was conscripted into the army in the spring of 1916. He was allocated to the 2/7th Warwicks the following year after being sent to the Western Front in June 1917. After taking part in the 3rd Battle of Ypres and the Battle of Cambrai in 1917, Arthur was heavily involved in the defensive actions against the German Spring Offensives of 1918.

Military Medal, George V version CC BY-SA 4.0 Hsq7278

He was awarded the Military Medal for actions during the German Offensive after operating a machine-gun despite having suffered a gun-shot wound to the leg on 21 March 1918. Initially posted as missing (this was the last time any of his comrades saw him alive), it later transpired that he had been taken prisoner by the advancing Germans, but died of his wounds in a German medical facility on 8 April 1918.

Le cimetière militaire by René Hourdry

Arthur Pickles is now buried in St.Souplet British Cemetery, Nord.

8 April 1918 325151  Pte Arthur Pickles MM, 2/7th Bn Ryl Warwickshire Regt

8 April 1918 died of his wounds

Research by David O'Mara with additional details by Jonathan Vernon 

Sources: English Census 1901, 1911; UK Commonwealth War Graves; Church of England Births and Baptisms, Pension Records from The Western Front Association archive on Fold3 by Ancestry.  

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Ancestry Pension Records