HOWE, Arthur




No. 400720, Private, Arthur James Charles HOWE
Aged 21


1st Battalion, Essex Regiment
Killed in Action on Thursday 22nd November, 1917

Born in Balsham in Q4-1896 [Newmarket 3b:530], son of Arthur and Mary HOWE (née GUYMER)of 48 Nat Flatman Street, Newmarket.

1901 census...At Nat Flatman Street were Arthur [5] with his father Arthur [40] a groom, born Huntingdon, his mother Mary [40] born West Wratting his sisters Ethel [11] born Newmarket and Annie [9] born Balsham and brother John[2] born Newmarket and a lodger.

1911 census...At 48 Nat Flatman Street was the same family unit, Arthur junior being a paper deliverer.

He was married in St Martin's Church, Exning on 28th February-1917 to Ada Ethel CHALLICE (b.29-1-1897), they lived at Landwade. Ada later married Thomas AKERMAN of Oxford Street, Exning, in 1921.

His son Arthur William who was born just before his father's death, on 4-6-1917, also died in war, as a prisoner of war of the Japanese in Burma in 1943

Arthur's entry in "Our Exning Heroes" reads as follows:

Howe, A.J.C.   1st Essex Regiment.
Arthur James Howe was a native of Newmarket, and was twenty-one years of age when he met his death. On February 28th, 1917, he was married in Exning Church to Ada Ethel Challice of Landwade, and leaves one little child.
No details have been received of his death, which probably occurred on November 21st, 1916. One of his comrades writes as follows: "I went over with Private Howe on 20/11/17 to Mesenieres. He was very slightly wounded that day, but remained with the Company. On the morning of the 21st the enemy attacked, and we went forward about 11 a.m., and in the evening we fell back behind Mesenieres. I last saw Pte. Howe going forward with us about noon. I have since asked all the men in the Company about him, as he was a friend of mine, but no-one saw him after I did."


Their task was made more difficult by the fact that a tank, F22 "Flying Fox", had broken the already damaged bridge at Mesnieres, with both bridge and tank ending up in the river. Lack of co-ordination between tanks and infantry contributed to the operation failing, eight of the 1st Essex men were killed this day as the battalion were falling back to their start line.


Tank F22 - "Flying Fox"



No Known Grave
Arthur is commemorated on the Cambria Memorial at Louverval, France...Ref: panels 7-8

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


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