| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Private Arthur Mattinson, aged 19, was seriously wounded in action on 22 Apr 1918 on the Somme. He died on 23 Apr 1918. He was buried at the Honour Guards’ Cemetery at Lesboeufs, near Albert, on the Somme.
Arthur enlisted in Beverley on 23 Jul 1917 and was posted to a reserve battalion for his training. Following German offensive of mid-Mar 1918 he was rushed to France and assigned to the 15th Battalion of the Notts and Derby Regiment (The Sherwood Foresters). At the time of his death he had only been in France 22 days. Arthur was awarded the War and Victory medals.
Arthur was born in Castleford, West Yorkshire, on 19 Feb 1899 and baptised at a local chapel on 22 Mar 1899, his father was Thomas Mattinson, born in Hull but who moved to the Castleford area, his mother was Eliza Sykes, they married on 23 Apr 1881. They had seven children, of whom Arthur was the youngest. At some point between 1911 and 1915, Thomas set up a furniture business in Saturday Market in Beverley and moved to 9 Grosvenor Place, off Cartwright Lane. Only Arthur came with them to Beverley and he was employed as a tanners’ labourer at the Hodgson and Sons’ Tannery. His siblings remained in the Castleford area where they were involved in or connected with the mining industry. Arthur was unmarried. After the war Arthur’s parents returned to the Normanton area, near Castleford, to live.
Arthur is remembered today on the East Riding Memorial in Beverley Minster and on the Hengate War Memorial but he is wrongly inscribed as “T.A. Mathinson”. He was also on the Hodgsons’ Roll of Honour.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |