BORN BEVERLEY 1895. SON OF ARTHUR THOMAS GROVES (1861-1947) & ELIZABETH BARNES (1868-1939), AT 33, SALISBURY STREET, HULL. LIKE HIS FATHER AND BROTHER ERNEST, HE WAS A MUNICIPAL CORPORATION CLERK FOR THE CITY TREASURER’S DEPARTMENT.
HE ENLISTED AT HULL, IN AUGUST 1914. JOINING THE 1ST EAST RIDING YEOMANRY. HE DROWNED, ON 15/04/1917, AGED 22. HE HAD BEEN ON SICK LEAVE PRIOR TO HIS DEATH. HE IS BURIED AT MIKRA BRITISH CENETRY, GREECE.
LISTED ON THE HULL TECHNICAL COLLEGE & CITY ENGINEERS WW1 MEMORIAL.
HE LEFT FOUR BROTHER BROTHERS, ERNEST, ARTHUR CYRIL, SYDNEY AND HERBERT GROVES.
HIS BROTHER, 2ND LIEUTENANT, ERNEST GROVES, ENLISTED WITH THE 1/4TH EYR, WAS COMMISSIONED INTO THE 7TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT, AND KILLED IN ACTION ON 31/03/1918, AGED 21.
On 15th April 1917, HMT Arcadian was sunk off Melos in the Aegean Sea. Nineteen men of the draft of 43 ERY men destined to join the 1/1st ERY in Palestine were among those drowned. The regiment’s war diary notes 2nd Lt. (Richard Duncan) Ullyott and 13 men arriving on May 9th, with 19 reported drowned. In addition, Robert Bell was a former ERY man, then attached to the Lincolnshire Yeomanry and Harry Matthews may also have been with the ERY, though the evidence is ambiguous. So the total losses for the regiment on this occasion may have been 21. Though there were a couple of experienced NCOs in this group, the majority were young recruits.
