| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Arthur Allinson was born in Oldham on 14 Jul 1895. He was the son of a policeman, Ephraim Allinson from Warcop in Westmorland. His father joined the East Riding Constabulary in Jun 1903 and his family moved to Beverley, living on Westwood Avenue, Grayburn Lane. Arthur’s mother Hannah died in 1908, and his sister Hannah went to stay with her uncle in Rochdale, leaving Arthur to be brought up by his father. Ephraim became an Inspector in 1911 and in January 1915 was appointed Superintendant of the Headquarters’ Division and Chief Clerk to the force. He was awarded the MBE in 1918.
Arthur attended Beverley Grammar School and spent five years up to 1914 in the Church Lads’ Brigade serving as a corporal and a bugler. On leaving school he became a solicitor’s clerk.
Arthur enlisted in Aug 1914, almost certainly at the same time as brothers Tom and Walter Welburn of Norwood with whom he served. Arthur became Drummer/Private 1870 in D Company of the 5th Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment and arrived in France in Apr 1915. His army service records are missing so little is known about his role in the war but he was “slightly wounded” by German shellfire whilst “attending another comrade” said the “Beverley Recorder” of 1 Apr 1916. In spring 1918 he transferred to West Yorkshire Regiment and on 5 Jun 1918 he was commissioned as an officer. Second Lieutenant Allinson was wounded again on 13 Oct 1918 as the allies pushed the German army northwards and eastwards out of France. The “Beverley Guardian” of 19 Oct noted that he had been admitted to hospital “with severe gunshot wounds to the chest” but he was “reported to be progressing favourably”. The circumstances of this are not known. This ended his army career. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star and the British and Victory Medals.
Very little is known about the rest of his life though it seems not to have been in Beverley. In 1929 he married Margaret M V Beard of Manchester in St Giles, London. They may have had two children. The 1939 census indicates that he was a licensed victualler, running the Coach and Horses Public House in Chertsey, Surrey. He died in Bournemouth in 1963.
Arthur is remembered on the Beverley Grammar School Roll of Honour in Queensgate, Beverley.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |