Arthur Mayes

View Arthur on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website
Service number:
7668
Rank:
Lance Corporal
Service:
Northamptonshire Regiment
Origin:
Date of birth:
1887
Date of death:
17 September 1914
Age at Death:
27
MAYES Arthur

Known information

Arthur Mayes was a former career soldier. He was born in 1887 in Egleton, the son of Emma Mayes, but the family later moved to Mill Street in Oakham. He enlisted in the 1st Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment at the age of 18, and served in India for several years. He left the army and became a saddler, but when the First World War broke out he rejoined his regiment. Arthur was sent to France with the first draft of the British Expeditionary Force in August 1914 and took part in the Retreat from Mons. He also fought in the Battle of the Aisne, and was killed by a shell on or about 17 September 1914. The explosion wiped out eleven others of  B Company, to which he belonged, as well as wounding several others. They were buried on the spot. A cross was put on the grave with the words: "Here lies half a section of B Company of the 1st Northants."  Inevitably his body was never recovered at the end of the war four years later and he is now remembered on La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial and on the war memorial in Oakham. Egleton, where he was born, does not have a war memorial.

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  • Oakham Church
  • Oakham Memorial
  • Oakham Memorial LA-NE
  • La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial 1
  • La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial 7
  • A Mayes 1

User contributions

A picture of Mr Mayes' name on the memorial, taken 17 August 2015
By John Stokes on Sunday 13th September '15 at 7:42am
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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