BRITTON, Arthur John Allan


2nd Lieutenant, Arthur John Allan BRITTON
Aged 26


"C" Company, 5th Battalion, Welsh Regiment
Killed in Action on Tuesday, 10th August 1915


Arthur John Allan BRITTON was born in 1888 in Wath upon Dearne (Barnsley Union Q4-1888 9C:232), son of Rev, William Jonathan and Priscilla Elizabeth BRITTON (née JACKSON).

1891 census...Aged 2, he was at 6 Hall Street, Dalton, Lancashire with his mother Priscilla E. BRITTON [29] born Goole, Yorkshire; sister Edith M [6] born Driffield, Yorks; brothers William N [4] born Driffield and Henry G [8 months] born Wath upon Dearne. His father, Rev. William J. BRITTON [30] a Wesleyan minister, born Northallerton, Yorkshire, was visiting the CROSSFIELD family at Fern Bank, Beetham, Westmorland.

1901 census...Aged 12, he was at 12 Well Street, Bury St.Edmunds with his parents; sister Edith, brothers William N.J.,Henry C.G., Reginald Bernard.[7] born Knottingley, Yorkshire and Edmund Arnold Courtenay, [1} born Bury St.Edmunds. Arthur and Henry are now recorded as born at Hoyland Nether, Yorkshire (about 5 miles from Wath upon Dearne).

As well as education at the East Anglian School, he attended Kent College, Canterbury.

1911 census...Aged 22, a coal mining engineer, he was at 1 Maindy Crescent, Ton Pentre, Rhondda with is parents and brothers Reginald (banking clerk)and Edmund (scholar). All the siblings survive. Around Christmas 1914 he married Sophie Margaret DAVIES (Pontypridd Q4-1914 11A:1455, later of Bryn Cerdin, Mountain Ash, Glamorgan. His parents were later at Wheldale, Morecambe, Lancs.



A mining engineer he originally enlisted in 1914 with the 21st Battalion, Royal Fusiliers.

The school magazine of 1915 recorded him wounded and missing on 10th August 1915

The 5th (Territorial) Battalion, Welsh Regiment were in Pontypridd in August 1914, the Battalion was part of the South Wales Brigade. After a move to Tunbridge Wells in November and then a spell in Scotland on the Forth/Tay defences in February 1915, they were attached to the 159th Brigade, 53rd Welsh Division and moved to Bedford. They sailed from Devonport on 19th July and landed at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli on 8th August.



Arthur Britton is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Gallipoli, panels 140 to 144

click here to go to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for full cemetery/memorial details


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