BORN HULL 26/06/1893. SON OF GEORGE WILLIAM WEBSTER (1854-1941) & EVELINE ROSE PEARSON (1862-1922), OF 113, WESTBOURNE AVNEUE, HULL. HIS MOTHER WAS THE YOUNGEST DAUGHTER OF ZACHARIAH CHARLES PEARSON. HIS FATHER WORKED ON THE CLERICAL STAFF ROSE DOWNS AND THOMPSON, A LOCAL SEED CRUSHING COMPANY. HE WAS ONE OF ELEVEN CHILDREN.
ARTHUR WAS A CHORISTER AT HOLY TRINITY CHURCH. A CORPORAL IN THE EAST RIDING YEOMANRY. EMPLOYED AS A BANKER’S CLERK. HE MARRIED MAUD ELIZABETH BOWYER, AT HULL, ON 08/06/1914. THEY HAD TWO CHILDREN.
HE ENLISTED IN SEPTEMBER 1914. JOINED THE “HULL COMMERCIALS”. SERVED WITH THE 10TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT, IN EGYPT AND FRANCE. ROSE THROUGH THE RANKS. COMMISSIONED AS SECOND LIEUTENANT, ON 24/01/1917. REMAINED WITH THE 10TH EYR. KILLED AT OPPY WOOD, ON 03/05/1917, AGED 23. HE IS COMMEMORATED ON THE ARRAS MEMORIAL, TO THE MISSING.
HE LEFT HIS ARMY EFFECTS AND £180 PROBATE, TO HIS FATHER, WHO WAS A SEED CRUSHER’S TRAVELLER.
HIS OLDER BROTHER, 2/LT, GEORGE ALAN WEBSTER, 1/4TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT, WAS KILLED IN ACTION ON 18/09/1918, AGED 29.
BOTH BROTHERS WERE CHORISTERS AT HULL’S HOLY TRINITY CHURCH AND ARE COMMEMORATED TOGETHER ON A PLAQUE AT THE REAR OF HULL MINSTER. A THIRD BROTHER, 2/LT, KENNETH WEBSTER, MC, EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT, WAS BADLY WOUNDED IN OCTOBER 1918 AND HIS SISTER WAS GIVEN £10 EXPENSES BY ROSE DOWNS AND THOMPSON, WHERE SHE WORKED ON THE CLERICAL STAFF, TO VISIT HIM IN FRANCE. ANOTHER BROTHER, HAROLD PEARSON WEBSTER SERVED AS A CAPTAIN IN THE INDIAN ARMY. THEIR SISTER VERA WEBSTER, DIED IN HULL, ON 28/04/1915, AGED 15.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. SECOND LIEUTENANT, ARTHUR CECIL WEBSTER. Born on 26th June 1893, Arthur was the sixth of eleven children to George and Eveline Rose Webster of 113 Westbourne Avenue, Hull. A Clerk in a Baker’s by trade, he was originally commissioned, like his elder brother George, into the 4th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment. Fate however separated the two brothers, with Arthur being transferred to the 10th Battalion, ‘The Commercials’, Hull Pals. He was killed in action, like so many of his comrades, on 3rd May 1917 at Oppy Wood, and, like many of those poor souls, his body was never recovered and lies undiscovered under foreign fields. His name is commemorated on the Arras Memorial; and also on a memorial tablet in Holy Trinity Church, Hull, where he was a chorister. To add further woe to his family, George too gave his life for King and Country, being killed in action on 18th September 1918. His youngest brother Kenneth Webster (1896-1962), was awarded the Military Medal as a L/Cpl, in the KRRC, in 1916 and then took a commission in the East Yorkshire Regiment, being awarded a Military Cross, in October 1918. He was wounded (lost his right arm and shoulder just 6 days after the award).
Thank You to Richard Webster for the above family information, sent on 28/07/2016.
