2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment
Arthur Albert Ernest Williams was a career soldier, who became a prisoner of war; later interned in Switzerland.
He was born in Dublin in about 1884. Apart from this, little is known as to his family background and early life. It would appear that no Army Service or Pension Record for him has survived and the fragments of information obtainable from other sources have been collated to furnish a reasonable record of his life and military service.
It would appear that he came from an Army background, as the 1891 Census records him living in Rhyl with his widower father, John, described as an ‘Army Pensioner’. That census shows him having a sister, Beatrice (born about 1871) and a brother Alfred H (born about 1878). Arthur was six at the time.
After discharge from the Army, during the Great War, he was awarded a Silver War Badge, to denote his previous military service and the record for this shows he first enlisted on 7 July 1899, possibly when he became 16. On the assumption that he joined the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment (RIR), he probably saw service in South Africa and India. According to the Channel Islands Great War Study Group website (CIGWSG) the 2nd RIR were the garrison on Alderney from 30 September 1910 until 2 October 1913. The 1911 Census records that Arthur was a Serjeant with the garrison and confirms his age of 26 and Dublin as his birthplace.
From Alderney the 2nd RIR transferred to Devonport. Before it left, Arthur had married Winifred Agnes Guille on 2 April 1911 (according to CIGWSG). She had been born in 1890 at Cairo, Egypt and at the time of the 1911 Census was a telephone operator at St Peter Port in Guernsey. The couple had two children, Barbara Eileen (born 23 February 1914 at Devonport) and John Walter, born on 15 February 1918.
According to his Medal Rolls Index Card, Arthur first went to the Western Front on 13 August 1914, the date on which the 2nd RIR was posted to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). The RIR took part in the Retreat from Mons in the autumn of 1914 and the subsequent advance from the River Aisne. In mid-October of 1914 it was located near La Bassee. On 20 October, in conjunction with the French cavalry, the battalion had captured Le Pilly, a village on Aubers Ridge, between Herlies and Fournes; unfortunately the villages either side were lost to a German counter-attack and the 2nd RIR was left surrounded and at about 3pm forced to surrender. Only one officer and 135 other ranks escaped ,whilst 302 men were taken prisoner on that day, most of them wounded: Serjeant Williams was taken prisoner during this action. Red Cross records (see below), going on information supplied by the Germans, indicate that he was captured at nearby Beuvry. He was reported in the list of ‘missing’ in the Irish Independent of 10 September 1915.
Evidence of his time as a prisoner of war can be found via the website of the International Committee of the Red Cross, where the files from German records have been digitised. It would appear that he was first considered ‘disparu’ or missing but the fact that he was a prisoner was ‘communique famille’ (communicated to family) on 22 November 1915. The contact noted is Mrs Eva Bannister, 25 Armstrong Road, Englefield Green, Surrey. It is not known what the connection is here. Evidently Arthur was sent to Sennelager, near Paderborn in northern Germany, where he stayed until 13 December 1916.
An agreement had been reached between the Allies and the Germans, for prisoners of war considered unfit for further military service, either due to wounds or sickness, to be interned in neutral Switzerland. Serjeant Arthur Williams’ name appears in a nominal roll of British PoWs arriving in Berne, Switzerland on the night of that date: due to heart disease he was interned at a special camp at Murren, in the Bernese Oberland.
In early 1918 repatriation of internees, no longer considered for military service, was instigated: the date of Arthur Williams repatriation is not known but the Silver War Badge records indicate that he was discharged from the Army on 28 May 1918. This was ‘due to wounds’ but it could well have been his heart condition.
It appears that the Williams family went to live at Clematis Cottage, South Cerney: what connection there was with the village is not known. Arthur died there on 9 November 1918, aged 34. According to a recently released Pension Record Card (PRC) the cause of death was ‘influenza and pneumonia’. This was at the time when the ‘second wave’ of ‘Spanish Flu’ infections was sweeping the country. He was buried in the churchyard of All Hallows, South Cerney, where a standard CWGC headstone marks his grave. According to the CIGWSG he is commemorated on the Guernsey Island Bailiwick Memorial in St Peter Port.
There is a sad twist to his story. According to the PRC, fourteen days later his wife, Winifred, also died, it is believed another victim of the influenza. Her death is reported as being at Bexley, Kent. The death of both parents left their children, aged four and nine months as orphans. The PRC notes that they were each assigned a guardian, the daughter, Barbara Eileen, being cared for by a Mrs W Guille in Guernsey (no doubt a member of Winifred’s family) and the son by a Mrs Lilian M Hoare in Beckenham, Kent; the relationship here is unknown. An allowance of £1 per week was paid to the guardians. The Register of Soldiers’ Effects, kept at the National Army Museum, records that the £25 War Gratuity due to Alfred was paid to his mother-in-law, Alice Guille.
Arthur and Winifed’s children suffered not only the pain of the sudden loss of both parents but also being parted, going into separate guardianship. Hopefully, in later years they were re-united.
Researched by Graham Adams 24 November 2020