Arthur James Dowding was born in Monmouthshire, the seventh of eight children born to William Dowding, a gardener, and his wife Emily. 

By 1901 Arthur was working as a telegraph messenger boy for the post office, and a few years later he is recorded as a post man in the Abergavenny area.  

Arthur joined the army on 4 August 1914, the day war broke out. In June 1915 he received a gunshot wound to the shoulder, though he returned to the battalion soon after. 

In late 1915 he married Mildred Day. In 1916 he suffered several bouts of trench fever alongside other minor health complaints, and in early 1917 he was awarded a Good Conduct Badge.   

Arthur was killed in action near Ramicourt in October 1918, just weeks before the end of the war. 

Although he was buried at the time of his death, key information about his grave was lost in the chaos of conflict, and after the war he was named on the Vis-en-Artois Memorial. 

Further research by the MOD’s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC), also known as the ‘MOD War Detectives’, the CWGC, and the National Army Museum, used sources such as war diaries, service records, grave registration reports and other documents. 

Following this, the original findings were confirmed allowing Arthur to be commemorated by name. He now has a permenant CWGC headstone in Bellicourt British Cemetery.