Gloucestershire Regiment
Private Hopkins’ entry in Soldiers Died in the Great War states his service was with the 8th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment. Notwithstanding the absence of an Army Service and Pension Record, this would appear to be an error, as other documents point towards the 2nd and possibly the 1st Battalion.
Arthur Edwin Hopkins was born at Kineton, near Temple Guiting in 1892 and was baptised at Guiting Power on 10 July of that year. His parents were James Hopkins (1863-1931), an agricultural labourer and his wife Ann Elizabeth (née Robbins: 1865-1964). The couple had four children, of whom three were surviving by the time of the 1911 Census. The surviving siblings were John (born 1889) and Alice Maria (1901).
The 1901 Census shows the family living in Kineton and likewise that of 1911. At that time Arthur, age 18, was employed as a farm labourer.
There are no surviving records to show the exact date on which Arthur joined the Army. However, he has a Medal Rolls Index Card and this shows that he was first posted abroad, to the Western Front, on 18 May 1915, so he would appear to have been an early war volunteer. The actual Medal Roll shows him serving initially with the 2nd Battalion and latterly the 1st Battalion of the Glosters. Examination of the entry for 21 May 1915 in the Battalion War Diary of the 2nd Glosters reveals that a draft of 135 men arrived from England and joined their comrades in bivouacs at a farm two miles south of Busseboom, near to Poperinghe, in the Ypres Salient. These men would have been to make good losses sustained by the 2nd Glosters, when engaged in heavy fighting in the area of Stirling Castle and Sanctuary Wood, on the 8th of the month. It is probable that Arthur Hopkins was part of that draft.
Nothing is known about Arthur’s army service from thereon, with either of the above battalions. The Register of Soldiers’ Effects (located at the National Army Museum) states that he died at the General Hospital, Nottingham, on 22 May 1917, aged 24. By then he had been posted to the strength of the Depot of the Glosters, a usual occurrence when an individual was sent back to the UK, due to wounds or sickness. A recently released Pension Record Card states that the cause of death was ‘tubercular meningitis’.
The burial record for Temple Guiting (St Mary) Church records that Arthur Edwin Hopkins (serving with the 2nd Glosters) was buried on 26 May 1917. His family chose a private red stoned headstone to mark his grave. He is commemorated on the Great War Memorial tablet inside St. Mary’s Church.
Researched by Graham Adams 19 May 2021