| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Arthur Finch was born the 5 Sep 1895 at Ellerby and baptised at the Ellerby Mission Room on 6 Oct 1895. He was the second child of Arthur and Eliza Finch (nee Ashton). They had eight children, the last of whom, Elsie, was born in 1916. Arthur Finch came from Skidby and Eliza from Long Riston, both from farm labouring families. Arthur senior continued that tradition and in 1901 was a foreman at Lane End Farm, Swine. His family then moved into Hull where he became a rulleyman (carter) and by the time of WW1 they were living at Durham Street, off Holderness Road. Arthur junior, however, after attending the local school in Swine, did, along with his brother, Ernest, born in 1901, go into farming. In the 1911 census Arthur was recorded as a beastman at Catfoss Grange in Brandesburton.
Arthur served in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) as a private though a photo feature in the Beverley Guardian in Feb 1917 described him as a lance-corporal. Most of his service records have not survived so it is not known in which particular part of RAMC he served but it is possible that like many other men from the Beverley and Hull areas that it was the 3rd Northumbrian Field Ambulance which was raised in Hull, and which served with 150th Brigade on the Western Front. The FA provided medical treatment on the field at Aid Posts and Dressing Stations and then moved serious casualties to the Field Ambulance hospital behind the front line for assessment and further treatment.
After the war Arthur was employed as a lorry driver. He was awarded the War and Victory Medals. In 1916 in Hull Arthur married Ethel M Bower, born 1898 at Foston-on-the-Wolds but brought up her grandparents in Hull. Their first child, George, was born in 1916 but died at birth. After the war they had two children Marjorie born 1920 and Doris born 1927.
Arthur died, aged 71 in West Yorkshire in late 1966.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |