NEALE, Arthur
No. 12248, Lance Corporal, Arthur Robert NEALE
Aged 24
7th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment
Died of Illness at Home on Monday 28th January, 1918
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Born in Exning, Q2-1893 [Newmarket 3b:536], he was the 2nd son of Alfred and Jane NEALE (née MUSK) of Cotton End, Exning. 1901 census...At Cotton End were Arthur R [8], his father Alfred [41] Agr.Labourer,born Exning, his mother Jane [41] born Bressingham, his brother Alfred L [13] labourer, and sisters Ellen [12], Mildred [9] and Florence [6] and Grandmother Rebecca Neale [85]. All except Jane were born in Exning. 1911 census...Arthur was at Cotton End living with his brother Alfred, a cow keeper, like himself, and sister Florence and married sister Emily POWELL with her 10 month old baby Charles. Arthur's father had died in 1902, his mother in 1911 just before the census. |
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His death after discharge from the Army may explain his absence from "Soldiers Died". He enlisted at Bury St Edmunds on 26th Agust 1914, aged 21 yrs 5 months, 5' 7.5" (171.5 cm) tall and weighing 126 lbs (57.3 kg). He joined the 1st battalion and went to France on 27th July,1915. He was back in UK on 24th October, 1915. He was transferred to the 11th battalion on 14th June, 1916 on return to France. Promoted to unpaid Lance Corporal on 9/8/1916 and paid L/Cpl on 15/9/1916, he was wounded on the left arm on 26th August 1917 and returned to UK on 5th Septemeber,1917. Discharged as unfit for military duties on 1st November 1917 due to laryngial and pulmonary tuberculosis. He gave his address as that of his sister and next of kin, Elizabeth Neale, at 2 Rowley Terrace, Exning. Arthur's entry in"Our Exning Heroes" reads as follows: Neale, A.R. 7th Suffolks Arthur Robert Neale joined up during the first month of the war, and after several months' training went out to France. He took part in several battles on the Somme, and had some experience of bayonet fighting. He had to come home, as he was suffering from a bad foot, and he remained in England about a year. On going out again he was slightly wounded in August 1917, and owing to bad health rather than his wounds, came back to Blighty. He was sent to Stockport and Nantwich, and was finally discharged as unfit for further service on November 1st, 1917. He went straight to the Sanatorium for Consumptives at Bury, but the disease had got too great a hold, and he came home to Exning on December 20th. He died on January 28th, at the age of twenty-four. I was with him when he breathed his last, and know that his end was peace. |
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