Arthur Thompson

View Arthur on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website
Service number:
6457
Rank:
Sergeant
Service:
Australian Imperial Force
Origin:
Date of birth:
08 October 1881
Date of death:
02 November 1917
Age at Death:
36
THOMPSON Arthur

Known information

Sergeant Arthur Thompson fought in the Boer War before emigrating to Australia. He was to die as a prisoner of war in Germany. Arthur was the son of John Henry Thompson and his wife of 3 Normanton Cottages, Empingham and was born at Geeston, Ketton, on 8 October 1881. He joined the army and served throughout the Boer War without a scratch. He had been in Australia for about six years and was about to set up his own market gardening business when he joined the 16th Battalion Australian Imperial Force in March 1916. Arthur came back to England in the early part of the following December, and was sent to France on the 2 February 1917. His battalion suffered heavy casualties when it went into action for the first time at Arras on 11 April 1917. Arthur was among 200 soldiers taken prisoner and sent to prisoner of war camps. He died from sickness in a camp at Friedrichfield, Germany, on 2 November 1917. He was initially buried near the camp but after the war his body was brought to Mons (Bergen) Communal Cemetery, grave V.C.14. Arthur is remembered on Empingham's war memorial and also on Ketton's memorial.

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  • Empingham plaque
  • Empingham Memorial
  • Empingham memorial 2
  • Ketton Memorial
  • Ketton Memorial 4
  • Mons Bergen Cemetery
  • Mons Bergen Cemetery 2
  • A Thompson 3a
  • A Thompson 1a
  • A Thompson 2a

User contributions

2 images Visited 2 November 2014
By John Stokes on Wednesday 12th November '14 at 12:10pm
A Rutlander, living in Belgium
 

Rutland and The Battle of the Somme

More than 90 Rutland soldiers died in the Battle of the Somme which lasted from 1 July 1916 until the middle of November. Today they lie in cemeteries across the old battlefield in northern France or are remembered among the 72,000 names on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme. By using our interactive map, you can find out what happened to them.

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