| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Arthur Simpson, and his twin Herbert was born in Beverley on 23 Jun 1893 and baptised at St Nicholas’ Church on 30 Jul 1893, the son of Robert Simpson and Ada, they had one sibling, Muriel Annie, born in 1897. Ada was from Hull and Robert from Market Weighton. Robert was a clerk at County Hall. Arthur was brought up in Beverley, and worked as a clerk in the Accounts Department at County Hall. Between 1909 and 1912 he was in the Church Lads’ Brigade, reaching the rank of Colour-Sergeant. Neville Hobson, who ran the CLB, wrote that, “He and his brother Herbert were two of the best lads ever enrolled”.
Arthur belonged to the 5th (Cyclist) Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment, a Territorial Force. He was at the annual camp when war was declared and the Battalion mobilised. In Jun 1915 he transferred to the West Riding Divisional Cyclists and rose to the rank of Sergeant. In Nov 1915 he was given a commission and became a 2nd Lieutenant in the South Staffordshire Regiment. They were deployed to Ireland in Apr 1916 following the Easter Rising in Dublin. In Feb 1917 they went to France, Arthur returned to the UK in Apr 1917 with dysentery. On 1 Aug 1917 he went back to France but after only three weeks, received three gunshot wounds to his left foot, right leg and buttock on 17 Aug 1917 and was admitted to hospital in France. He was awarded the War and Victory Medals.
Arthur continued to work as an accountant, moving to the Liverpool area. In Sep 1922 he married Elsie Lock. They had two children, Doreen born 1925 and Patricia born 1930. They lived to the north of Liverpool. Elsie died in 1932. Arthur became Borough Accountant in Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. He married for a second time in 1940. His wife Hilda May Waters was born in 1900. Arthur died on 18 Jan 1950 aged 56.
He is remembered on the Grovehill Road Street Shrine as is his twin brother Herbert whose military career was uncannily the same.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |