Also Served: Arthur Bonney - Arthur BONNEY
21 Eldon Street, St Helens Pte 7482, 11th Bn., South Lancashore Regiment Arthur Bonney was born in St Helens in 1878, one of at least 6 sons of William Bonney, a Plasterer, and his wife Emily.
The family lived in Fenton Street in the 1881 census and College Street by the 1891 census. Then in late 1900, Arthur married Edith Emily Archer in St Helens and by the time of the 1901 census, they were living at 56 Eldon Street. It was probably no coincidence that they lived next door to Arthur's parents, who by this time were at number 54. Arthur was employed as a Sheet Glass worker.
They had moved further along Eldon Street, to number 21, by the time of 1911 census, which shows them to have children Daniel (9), Doris (8), Ernest (6), William (3) and Joseph (8 months). They later had two more sons, Arthur (b. 1913) and George (b. 1915). It appears that George died in infancy.
Probably soon after the outbreak of war in August 1914, Arthur volunteered for service with the Lancashire Fusiliers, being assigned number 7482 with the 11th Battalion of the regiment. Interestingly for a battalion of a Lancashire regiment, the 11th was never actually based in the county. It had been formed at Codford in Wiltshire in September of 1914, where it remained until the end of the year.
Early in 1915 they moved to Boscombe in Hampshire to continue training. They moved to other bases in Hampshire and then in July were to be found at their last UK base, Malplaquet Barracks in Aldershot. From here, they entrained for Folkstone on 25th September, sailing for Boulogne the same day.
Arthur's Medal Index Card (below) confirms that he sailed on that date.
The battalion remained at Ostrohove Rest Camp in Boulogne for 2 nights then on the morning of the 27th, they moved by train to Caestre, about 10 miles south-west of Ypres, then onwards by bus for about 8 miles to Nieppe before marching the short distance to Armentieres.
They remained at Armentieres until early October, undergoing final training in trench warfare before finally, on 3rd October, they were moved up some 5 miles to the trenches at Le Touquet. As was the usual practice, they remained here for 9 days before coming back to reserve at Le Bizet on the 12th for 8 days. They suffered four men lost in their first period in the trenches.
On 20th October, they once more returned to the trenches at Le Touquet for their next spell in the trenches. Although there were no major actions taking place around this time, the battalion was subject to the usual trench attrition of shelling and mortar fire, snipers and grenades. It seems likely that Arthur fell victim to this type of warfare as he was killed in action on the 26th, the only man of his unit killed that day. Arthur was 37 years old.
His body was recovered and he was buried in Gunners Farm Military Cemetery, where there are four rows of Lancashire Fusiliers.
The pictures below, kindly supplied by the family, show Arthur's son William on a pilgrimage to his father's grave in the 1960's.
Arthur's brother David also died in the war. He was serving in Mesopotamia with the Army Service Corps and probably died of disease. He is buried in Basra War Cemetery. Ref. No.:
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