Arthur Stanley Haines

Memorial: Kingswood - Holy Trinity Church

Regiment: Gloucestershire Regiment

Medals: 1914–15 Star, British War Medal, Next of Kin Memorial Plaque 1914 - 1921, Silver War Badge, Victory Medal

Rank and number: Private 28388

Parents: Elijah and Mary Ellen Haines

Home address: Spring Hill, New Cheltenham, Kingswood, Bristol

Pre-war occupation: Factory worker in Fry's Chocolate Factory in Bristol

Date of birth: 13/05/1897

Place of birth: Kingswood, Bristol

Date of death: 06/12/1916

Buried/Commemorated at: Buried at Rue-Des-Berceaux Military Cemetery, Richebourg-L'avoue, Pas de Calais, France and commemorated on Kingswood Holy Trinity Memorial, Kingswood High Street Boys School Memorial and Kingswood Congregational Church Memorial

Age: 19

Further information:

Arthur was born in Kingswood the son of a manual worker and a middle child of ten with five sisters and four brothers. He was a member of one of a bible class at Kingswood Congregational Church.

Arthur would have enlisted on his 18th birthday in 1915 and in November of that same year he mobilised to France with his battalion where they fought in various actions on the Western Front including the Battles of the Somme. Arthur was killed in action a year after arriving in France when he was hit by a German trench mortar bomb. He was another casualty of the ongoing trench warfare that claimed 300 soldier lives per day. His commanding officer in a letter to his parents said “your son had always been a good soldier and his loss is greatly felt by his officers and comrades. He was always eager to do his duty even under the most disadvantageous circumstances.”

By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):

This information has been provided by Sarah Hands, Volunteer Researcher for the South Gloucestershire War Memorials Web Site.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
https://www.cwgc.org/
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/
https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/
Kingswood Heritage Museum