Arthur Willimont BEAUCHAMP

Date of Birth: 23 December 1892

Address: 231 Melfort Road, Thornton Heath.

Family: Son of the late Arthur Robert Beauchamp & Ellen Elizabeth Beauchamp of 23 Richmond Road, Thornton Heath.

School Record: Joined Lower Fourth Form 1st term 1907; Form Captain Va (1907-08) & VIb (1908-09); Captain school cricket 1st XI; football for school 1st XI; left school April 1909.

House: Yellow (Captain).

Age: 23.

Date of Death: 15 July 1916.

Service No: STK/326

Medals: 1914-15 Star.

Service Record: Enlisted as Private in 10th Bn. Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) 29 August 1914.

Details of Casualty: Killed in action 15 July 1916, France.

Commemorated: Serre Road Cemetery No. 2, France.

Private Arthur Willimont Beauchamp

10th Bn. Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment)

Arthur was born in Islington on 23 December 1892, the only son of Arthur Robert Beauchamp and Ellen Elizabeth Beauchamp, and the elder brother of Ellenor Amy. Arthur’s father was a clerk with a mercantile shipping company, although the list of applications to join Whitgift Middle School completed in September 1906 lists his occupation as a brewery representative. The Beauchamp family had several different homes over the years: in 1901 they were living in Glenelg Road, Lambeth where Arthur attended Haselrigge Road School in Clapham. By 1904 the family home was at 131 Langdale Road, Thornton Heath, while Arthur attended Beulah Road Boys School / Croydon British School from 1904 to 1906. In 1911 they were at 231 Melfort Road, Thornton Heath, and by 1914 Arthur’s parents had moved 23 Richmond Road, still in Thornton Heath.

Joining the Lower Fourth Form at Whitgift Middle School in August 1906, Arthur showed great sporting prowess. In athletics he placed third in the Challenge Cup at the annual sports day in 1908, and won the trophy in the following year by coming first in both the 440 yards open handicap and three-legged race [with TS James], placing second in the one mile flat race handicap, and third in the half mile open handicap. He also excelled in team sports, playing for the School’s 1st XI at both cricket and football, captaining the latter. Arthur was also captain of the Yellow House football team, and under his leadership they won the Challenge Cup in 1909. A review of the 1907-08 football season read: School teams had an encouraging & successful season. James scored 6 goals & Martyr 4; “For the defence Young (captain) and Beauchamp have been responsible, and right well they have acquitted themselves.” Poignantly Frank Martyr and Thomas James were to fall in the Great War along with Arthur.

Arthur was also a leader in other ways. He was Captain of Form Va in the 1907-08 school year and of Form VIb the following year, and was also House Captain of Yellow. Academically he won a prize for writing in 1908. When he left the School in April 1909 the following article appeared in the Mid Whitgiftian: “With the close of this term VIb loses her captain – Beauchamp is leaving. For two years he has been a form-captain without a break. Does this not speak for itself? And all who know him cannot but agree that we are losing a sport-man of the first water – a sportsman in spirit. It is with mingled feelings of regret and good wishes that we bid him ‘Farewell’. May he e’er be esteemed as he has been at Whitgift, and may nought but prosperity cross his path.”

By 1914 Arthur was a clerk at the Exchange Telegraph Company, a news agency that is now better known as Extel. When war broke out, General Sir Henry Rawlinson suggested that men would be more inclined to enlist in the Army if they knew that they were going to serve alongside their friends and work colleagues. He appealed to London stockbrokers to raise a battalion of men from workers in the City of London to set an example. 1,600 men enlisted in this 10th (Service) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, the so-called "Stockbrokers' Battalion", within a week in late August 1914. Arthur was one of the first to enlist on 29 August 1914 at the Tower of London, and served as Private no. STK/326. His service record survived the Blitz but was very badly burned, but we know that he was 5’ 3 ¾” tall, weighed 148lbs and had a chest measurement of 38”.

Courtesy of Croydon Local Studies Library and Archives Service The Battalion was inspected on 29 August 1914 by Lord Roberts in Temple Gardens and marched to the Tower of London’s dry moat (known as Tower Ditch), and was sworn in by the Lord Mayor, Sir W. Vansittart Bowater before proceeding to Colchester as part of 18th (Eastern) Division for training. Throughout their service they called themselves ‘Ditchers’ because they had joined up in the Tower Ditch. In April 1915 10th Bn. Royal Fusiliers were transferred to 111 Infantry Brigade within the new 37th Division, and moved to Cholderton on Salisbury Plain; on 25 June 1915 they were inspected by King George V at Sidbury Hill, before being embarked for France in July 1915. Along with the rest of his Battalion Arthur disembarked at Boulogne in France on 31 July 1915, entitling him to the 1914-1915 Star.

Recruits to Stockbrokers’ Battalion sworn in at the Tower of London – courtesy Getty Images & British Pathe.

After heavy losses on 1 July 1916 on the first day of the joint Franco-British offensive starting the Battle of the Somme, General Rawlinson’s Fourth Army needed reinforcements. On 6 July 1916 two infantry brigades (102 & 103) in 34th Division, part of General Pulteney’s III Corps, were swapped with 111 & 112 Brigades from 37th Division, including the Stockbrokers’ Battalion, who were now detailed to attack Pozières in the phase known as the Battle of Albert. Their task would be to pass through the village of Pozières once it had been captured by 112 Brigade and attack the German second line at the windmill on the Albert-Bapaume road. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_albert1916.html

The Regimental History records their approach: - “When the 10th Battalion came up on July 10th they left one amazing experience to go to another. On the night of the 9th the battalion camp at Albert was heavily shelled, and a grenade dump (50,000) detonated, wounding an officer, killing one man and wounding two others. But in the front line death and desolation were everywhere. La Boiselle was level with the ground. The trenches were battered and exposed. Dead bodies lay about on all sides. At 9 p.m. on July 10th C and B Companies were pushed up in relief of the 13th Rifle Brigade, who, attacking towards Pozières, had suffered from machine-gun fire; and the battalion lay in advanced positions under heavy shell fire for two days. The men preferred attack when losses sustained went to pay the price of some tangible success, or at least to further an obvious purpose.”

The Battalion War Diary details the attack on 15 July 1916: _ “9am. Bn followed 112 Brigade in file up SAUSAGE VALLEY to support attack on POZIERES. 2nd objective was line from Windmill N of BAPAUME Road to where German line cross the Pozieres Tramway. “On reaching the LA BOISELLE-CONTALMAISON Road the Bn wheeled left along the Front Line support trench and deployed for advance on POZIERES. “300 yards from village the 112 Brigade attacking between BAILIFF WOOD-POZIERES Road and the CONTALMAISON – POZIERES Road was held up by MG fire and a large body of men became blocked in hollow 200 yards south of Pozieres. “HQ of 10th RF requested a barrage on the south of the village and to be allowed to support attack. Consequently, D Coy (Lt FM Taylor) took a small orchard SW of the village entrance. Further advance was then made but MG fire meant they had to pull back to this first orchard. “By now the 10th RF HQ was in a chalk pit on BAILIFF WOOD –POZIERES Road with HQ’s of 2 other Battalions. “2pm. Major-General Ingouville-Williams commanding 34th Division appeared in chalk pit to advise another attack would be made after a 1 hour bombardment. “4.30pm. Brig-General Robinson commanding 112 Brigade appeared in chalk pit and issued orders for attack and advised that 25th Division on the right would not be attacking at the same time. “5pm. Bombardment commenced. “6pm. Rockets to signal attack could not be fired due to damp so initially only some men advanced. MG fire was even more destructive than in the morning and troops had to retire. “Killed: 3 Officers, 39 OR “Missing: 24 OR “Wounded: 8 Officers, 175 OR”

The Regimental History: “Meanwhile the 10th Battalion had been engaged, and had fought their way to the orchard on the south-west entrance of Pozieres. At 9 a.m. on July 15th they had advanced up Sausage Valley in support of the main attack. About 300 yards from the village they were held up by machine-gun fire. The hollow road seemed to be blocked with troops; and it was obvious the attack had failed before it was abandoned. The CO. asked permission to place a barrage at the southern end of the village and to take part in the attack. The battalion advanced with a dash, and Lieutenant F. M. Taylor, with D Company, seized the orchard, and an attempt was made to penetrate the outlying orchards. But this movement was defeated by concentrated machine-gun fire, and the advanced positions had to be evacuated. Headquarters in chalk pit, about 900 yards from the edge of the village, had been in constant communication with all the companies, and in the afternoon a renewed effort was made. “After a pause for reorganisation the village was bombarded from 5 to 6 p.m., and the signal was given for the advance. But at this point there was an unfortunate mischance. The rockets failed, owing to dampness; and the battalion did not start in unison. Some advanced, others still waited, and the blow failed. Most determined and repeated attempts were made to rush the village, but nothing could live in such a machine-gun fire. The battalion were driven back to cover in the afternoon positions, and the 10th Loyal North Lancashires took over the positions after dark. All the company commanders were casualties, and so heavily had the battalion lost that, with the division, they were taken out of the line.”

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission actually lists four officers from the Battalion killed on that date: Lieutenant FM Taylor and Second Lieutenants JO Armstrong, R Bevir and PM Richards. All are commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing. The 10th Royal Fusiliers’ casualties in total were: 42 killed; 183 wounded; and 24 missing. Arthur, aged 23, was among the other ranks killed in action, and he was buried at trench map reference 57.d.x.10.a.5.5 between Contalmaison Wood and Pozières.

The area south-west of Pozières where the attack of 15 July 1916 was launched, and the field where Arthur Beauchamp’s body was buried.

On 23 July 1916 his father wrote to the Mid Whitgiftian: -

In the 29 July 1916 edition of the Croydon Advertiser and Surrey County Reporter the following article was printed: “Some time ago [19 June 1916] we published a group of “chums” in the 10th Royal Fusiliers, all belonging to Thornton Heath, and now news is to hand that two have been killed and three wounded in one of the recent actions…….Killed too was Pte A Beauchamp of 231 Melfort Road, Thornton Heath. He was also shot in the head.” The other man mentioned as killed was PH Ellis of Whitgift Grammar School and the London, City & Midland Bank, also a resident of Thornton Heath.

Arthur Beauchamp is second from left bottom row; Philip Ellis third from left top row.

After the War Arthur’s body was removed from its original burial place and reinterred at Serre Road Cemetery No. 2 (grave XXI.A.5). His body was identified from his collar badge, watch, ring, toothbrush (marked “AB”) and a medal inscribed with his army service number. The headstone bears the inscription: “Far away but not forgotten – Mother.” http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/67200/SERRE%20ROAD%20CEMETERY%20No.2

Acknowledgements: - Commonwealth War Graves Commission. National Archives: Service Record AW Beauchamp (WO 363/B1384); War Diary 10th Bn. Royal Fusiliers (WO 95/2532). National Census: 1901 & 1911. Whitgift Middle School Records and The Mid Whitgiftian, Trinity School Archive. Croydon Advertiser and Surrey County Reporter. Croydon Local Studies Library and Archives Service. H.C. O’Neill, O.B.E. – “The Royal Fusiliers in the Great War”. Graham Keech – “Battleground: Somme – Pozieres”. The Long, Long Trail - http://www.1914-1918.net/london.htm Historic Royal Palaces: Tower of London - http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/Default.aspx The Wartimes Memory Project: The Great War - http://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/allied/royalfusiliers10-gw.php Military History Encyclopaedia on the Web - http://www.historyofwar.org/index.html National School Admission Registers & Log-Books 1870-1914. Soldiers Died in the Great War; Officers Who Died in the Great War.