Arthur George Websdale

Born: 23 June 1884

Died: 17 April 1918

Rank and Regiment: Private 30358 in the 1st Battalion of the Royal Lancaster Regiment

Resting Place: body unrecovered

Memorial: Loos Memorial, France

He was born on 23rd June 1884 at Hardingham. He was baptised at Hardingham on 28th September 1890, together with his brothers Harry (b 1880) and Ernest (b 1887).

He is recorded as being admitted to Hardingham Church of England School on 29th April 1889, leaving on 23rd June 1898 to become a tradesman’s boy.

The Websdale family had been established in Hardingham for many years (statistically, it appears that Websdale is the most common surname in the Hardingham burial registers); Arthur’s great-grandmother Maria Websdale nee Wortley died in Hardingham in 1827. Arthur Websdale was related by marriage to Arthur Whitehand (q.v.) who also died in the Great War.

He lived at Nordelph Corner and according to the Hardingham War Memorial Register he worked as a gardener at Reymerston Hall.

It appears that he enlisted at Norwich; according to the Hardingham War Memorial Register he was called up in April 1916.

There is a record of the marriage of Arthur G Websdale to Ellen Susanna Bootman at Ipswich in the autumn of 1917, and his effects, and the War Gratuity, are paid out to her.

He was killed in action on 17 April 1918; it would appear that his body was never recovered, for he is commemorated on the Loos Memorial.

Loos Memorial, France