Born Escrick, Deighton, Yorkshire, 1875, Son of William and Mary Lofthouse, of Tockwith, York; Son of a farm labourer. He had two brothers and three sisters.
husband of Julie Lofthouse (nee Dalton), of 5, Norwood Dale, Beverley, Yorks. Enlisted in 1905. Won Challenge Cup for Shooting 1907-8 and 1910-12.
He worked as a wood sawyer and forester on the estate of Lord Wenlock (the founder of the ERY) at Escrick.
He enlisted in the East Riding Yeonanry. Lofthouse was a crack shot, who won a number of regimental shooting competitions. He joined the ERY in about 1904-1905. Lofthouse was aboard the HMT Arcadian when it was sunk off Greece in April 1917 and was amongst those ERY soldiers who were drowned.
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.
