Today We Remember

Arthur Stanley WOOLNOUGH

Second Lieutenant, C Company, 7th Battalion,
The Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry

Family Background

Arthur was the son of Matthew Henry and Kate Woolnough. His father was born in Redhill, Surrey and became Estate Steward to the Cartwrights of Aynhoe Park. His mother was born in Knockdown, Sherston, a few miles west of Malmsbury in Wiltshire.

As Estate Steward the family lived at Friars Well, and he would have known the inside and outside of nearly every house in the village! Arthur was born at Friars Well in 1890, and the 1911 census shows Arthur also worked in the Estate Office – very good experience of dealing with men at work across the estate both before going on to be a soldier himself and latterly commanding and leading men in battle.

Arthur married at some point after 1911, before or during the War; his wife then widow lived in Tintagel, Cornwall. Arthur had certainly moved down to that part of the world before 1914.

Arthur first enlisted in the Royal 1^st Devon Yeomanry in August 1914 – probably the local Bodmin (Cornwall) squadron – and served in Gallipoli (1915) and in Egypt (1916) with it.  He was first gazetted Second Lieutenant on 25 January 1917 after his cadet officer training in England, when he transferred to the DCLI.  He fought in France for the whole of 1917 until he was killed.

He is buried in grave V C 24 Caudry British Cemetery. He is also remembered on the Tintagel memorial in Cornwall.