BORN SOWERBRIDGE, YORKSHIRE, 1897. STEP MOTHER SARAH J. HOPKINSON.
ENLISTED WHITEHALL, MIDDLESEX, LONDON. FORMERLY, PRIVATE, 11542, ARMY SERVICE CORPS. TRANSFERRED TO PRIVATE, 36542, 11TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT, 6TH PLATOON, “B” COMPANY. REPORTED MISSING ON 12/04/1918, AGED 21.
HE LEFT A SISTER, AT IVY COTTAGE, ROYD LANE, RIPPONDEN.
HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL ON 3RD MARCH 1919, WITH HIS PHOTOGRAPH. * NO PENSION LEDGER ADDRESS.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE ARTHUR HOPKINSON 36542. Born in 1897, Arthur was the youngest of four children to Charles and Sarah Hopkinson of 16 Westbury Terrace, Halifax. An Accountant’s Clerk before the war he was resident at Pickwood Scar, Sowerby Bridge at the time of his enlistment on 1st March 1916. He actually signed up in Whitehall at the Central London Recruitment Depot and originally joined as 11542 in the Army Cyclist Corps with whom he spent most of 1916 at their base in Chiseldon away from the worst of the war. It wouldn’t last. The decimation of the British Army on the Somme over the summer and autumn of that year meant all available hands were sent to the front while their roles were filled by those deemed unfit for front line service, or men returning from serious wounds. Arthur arrived in France just before Christmas 1916 joining the 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment and serving with them at Oppy Wood. Later transferring to the 11th when the two battalions merged, Arthur was killed in action on 12th April 1918 during the German Spring Offensive and his body was never recovered. His name is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial, Belgium; he was 21 years old.
