Arthur Thomas Gell was born in North Deighton, Yorkshire (west of York), in 1894, the eldest son of James Walter Gell and his wife Ada Eleanor (née Jennings).  His parents, both born in Yorkshire, Walter in Holme and Eleanor in Wilberfoss, married in 1891 and had nine children.  Arthur had an older sister Mary Evelyn, and younger siblings Beatrice May, Elsie Annie, James Alfred, Walter Edward, Ernest Albert, George Henry, and Hilda Eleanor.  His parents and some of the children were known by their middle names.

 

Based on the children’s birthplaces and censuses, the family moved around the York area, his father working as a farm labourer.  Arthur was baptised on 29th July 1894 in Wilberfoss, Yorkshire (east of York), his parents’ abode Copmanthorpe (southwest of York).

 

In 1901 the family is living at Derwent Cottages, Deighton, Yorks, East Riding, with six children. His father is an agricultural labourer, Arthur is 6. His sister Elsie Annie died in 1909 aged 9.

 

In 1911 the rest of the family (with six children) is found in Kelfield, near York.  Arthur is not in the household. His father is 48, a farm labourer, his mother is 38,  Evelyn is 17, Alfred 12, Walter 11, Ernest 4, George 1, and Hilda is a newborn. Beatrice 14, is employed as a domestic servant in another household.  An Arthur Gell, aged 18, is employed as a waggoner on the farm of Henry and Maria Dresser, in Kelfield.  This individual is two years older than Arthur and has birthplace Wistow, which is about 20 miles from his stated birthplace.  However, the census was filled in by the farmer and information is often incorrect. There are no other likely entries for Arthur found on the census.

 

Arthur enlisted in about March-April 1915, based on the amount of the War Gratuity; he served about three and a half years before he was killed.  

 

Arthur enlisted as Private 19112 in the 8th Bn East Yorks, at their Victoria Barracks in Beverley, Yorks.  The 8th trained at Halton Park in Buckinghamshire, moving in August 1915 to Witley Camp in Surrey.  The battalion crossed to France, arriving at Boulogne on 9 September 1915.  Less than two weeks after arrival it was thrown into a major attack at the Battle of Loos, without the men ever having visited the frontline trenches. After suffering heavy casualties at Loos, the battalion saw action in the Ypres Salient in April 1916: then moved to the Somme, being involved in fighting at Bazentin Ridge and the Ancre in November.  The battalion moved to Arras in February 1917 and were involved in the three Battles of the Scarpe.  

 

It is not know when Arthur was transferred to 14th Bn King’s (Liverpool) Regiment as Private 56271.  The 14th K.L.R. went to the Balkan (Salonika) front in October 1915, and fought in the Battles of Horseshoe Hill and Machukovo in 1916 and at Doiran in 1917. They returned to France in June 1918.  The battalion was absorbed by the 18th K.L.R. in August 1918, becoming the 18th (Lancashire Hussars), King’s (Liverpool) Regiment. He was serving with  the 18^th Battalion as Private No 56271 when he was killed in action on the 20th October 1918 during the hundred days offensive which ended the First World War (8^th August-11^th November 1918).  

He now rests at Le Cateau Military Cemetery, France.

Le Cateau-Cambrésis and the country to the west of it was the scene of a battle fought by the British II Corps on 26 August 1914 against a greatly superior German force. The town remained in German hands from that date until the evening of 10 October 1918, when it was rushed by the 5th Connaught Rangers and finally cleared a week later. During the war Le Cateau had been a German railhead and the site of an important hospital centre. The military cemetery was laid out by the Germans in February 1916 with separate plots for the Commonwealth and German dead. It contains the graves of over 5,000 German soldiers, many of whom were buried during the occupation, the rest being brought in from other German cemeteries after the Armistice. A separate plot contains the graves of 34 Russian prisoners of war who died in captivity. The Commonwealth plot is the site of almost 700 graves and commemorations of the First World War. The majority of the graves in Plots I, III, IV and V are those of British dead buried by the Germans, mainly from the battleground of 1914; Plot II contains entirely graves of October and November 1918, eight of which were brought in after the Armistice.

His medal roll shows the last name Gill.  CWGC Graves Registration shows 14th K.L.R.

 

His father received his effects, including a War Gratuity of £20. The pension card, in the name of his mother at Seaton Ross, Everingham, does not show an amount.