Private Arthur Alexander Stokes, 24th Battalion (2nd Sportsman’s) Royal Fusiliers – one of 3 brothers to serve

Arthur Alexander Stokes was born in 1894 at Wolborough, in Devon, one of ten children of James, a master builder, and Mary Stokes, who had moved to Bovey Tracey by 1911. He worked as a clerk for the Newton Abbot solicitors Michelmore & Hacker and, having been in their employment for six years, received a cheque from them on enlisting at Exeter in January/February 1915.

Arthur disembarked with his unit, 24th Royal Fusiliers, at Le Havre on 15 November 1915 and, during the following year’s Somme battles, was killed in action on 30 July 1916, aged 22, when the Battalion attacked Guillemont. Its C Company sustained very heavy casualties in front of uncut wire in the railway station area, only 12 men out of 117 returning. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, in France, and at Bovey Tracey on the civic war memorial, on both parish church war memorials and by the local road name Stokes Close, TQ13 9GH.