Arthur Lewis
Memorial: Wapley - St Peter's Church
Regiment: Gloucestershire Regiment
Medals: 1914–15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal
Rank and number: Private 11311
Parents: Aaron and Harriet Lewis
Home address: Codrington
Pre-war occupation: Farm Labourer
Date of birth: 1897
Place of birth: Codrington
Date of death: 21/04/1916
Buried/Commemorated at: Al Basrah (Panel 12), Basra, Iraq
Age: 19
Further information:
Arthur Lewis was born in 1897 in Codrington and he was baptised on 17th April in Wapley. His parents were Aaron and Harriet Lewis of Codrington and he was brother to Clara, Maurice, Bertie, William, Ellen, Alfred, Kate, Charles and Maud. Aaron Lewis was a farm labourer and had been born in Hinton
Arthur served with the 7th (Service) Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment. The 7th Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment was raised in Bristol in August 1914 as part of Lord Kitchener's New Army and after training departed from Avonmouth on 19th June 1915. They arrived in Alexandrea, Egypt, then moved on to Gallipoli. They saw major commitment to battle in the attempt to take the hill of Chunuk Bair, just inland of Anzac Cove. On 7th August 1915 the battalion went into battle almost 1,000 strong, but only 181 emerged from it completely unscathed, the rest being either killed or wounded. Of the battalion’s twenty officers, ten were killed and ten were wounded. They regrouped in Egypt and went on to Mesopotamia where Arthur was killed on the 21st April 1916
Arthur Lewis is remembered with his brother Bertie on the Wapley War Memorial Cross and Chipping Sodbury and District War Memorial Cottage Hospital board, now at Yate and District Heritage Centre, under Wapley
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
Yate and District Heritage Centre and Soldiers of Gloucester Museum