Arthur James Carter was born in Whitchurch on 7th September 1896. He was the son of John Carter and Mary Louisa Bulpitt West, who had married in Whitchurch in 1886. John was an agricultural labourer and his wife, a tailoress, a trade in which she would school her daughters.

Arthur would be one of 7 siblings, all of whom were surviving at the time of the 1911 Census. Those found from records comprise: John West (b.1887), Louisa Mary (b.1888), William Cecil (b.1890), Elizabeth A. (b.1892), Martha Bessie (b.1895) and Frederick Ernest (b.1900)

The family lived in Newbury Street, Whitchurch and, following his education, Arthur became a baker’s errand boy in the town.

From surviving records, it is believed that on 10th March 1915, Arthur went with two older friends from the town, Edward Carter (relationship not known, if any) and Sidney Albert Waldren to Andover to enlist. Sidney Waldren had two older brothers who had been pre-war soldiers with the Hampshire Regiment. Indeed they had gone to France with the 1st Bn. Hampshire Regiment in August 1914…These were Frederick Harry (also found as Harry Frederick) and William Thomas Waldren (both also found as in army records as Waldron). Given this, and their enthusiasm the three were accepted into the regiment as Privates with consecutive regimental numbers of 15852, 15853 and 15854 respectively…even though Arthur James Carter was under age…

Arthur Carter with Edward Carter would complete their training through the summer of 1915. In October 1915, they would be posted to the 2nd Battalion, which had initially landed in Gallipoli in April 1915. However Sidney Waldren would remain in England until 1916 when he would be sent out to France in a draft of replacements to the 1st Bn. Hampshire Regiment in France – here he would join his older brothers.

On the Peninsula, the weather and resulting conditions effectively ended the campaign. The war diary of the 2nd Hampshires for this period to January 1916 indicates little ‘action’, other than holding the line and providing working parties. Casualties due to sickness and exposure were increasing, the battalion numbers reducing to less than half by the time the Peninsula was evacuated. These casualties would be taken back to Egypt or directly to England.

It seems during this period, Arthur Carter became a casualty and was returned back to England. Edward Carter would now remain until the evacuation and the transfer of the battalion to France in March 1916.

Now back in England, and once recovered, Arthur James would now re-join his friend Sidney Waldren with his two brothers in the 1st Bn. Hampshire Regiment in 1916. The battalion was based on the Somme, making preparations for the major offensive here to begin on 1st July. They would indeed by joined by the 2nd Bn. Hampshires – these two ‘regular’ battalions would make their respective attacks ‘side by side’, the 1st Bn. leading the attack at the Redan Ridge and the 2nd, just to the south, supporting the attack at Beaumont Hamel…

Arthur James Carter, Sidney Albert Waldren, Frederick Harry Waldren, William Thomas Waldren, and Edward Carter – would all finally be together to take part in the ‘Big Push’…

At 7.40am on the 1st July 1916, the 1st Hampshires attacked the Redan Ridge, a stretch of the German front line just north of the village of Beaumont Hamel. The battalion was immediately cut down by machine-gun fire and hardly a man reached the German line. More than 500 men, nearly half the battalion, were killed or wounded in the attack.

It is probable that Arthur Carter was one of those wounded on the first day of this battle, as according to the Hampshire Regimental Journal for September 1916, he was being treated at Edinburgh War Hospital for a gunshot wound (shrapnel) to the buttocks, having been evacuated to the UK.

The fate of his friends is not known with certainty, although it is believed Sidney and William Thomas Waldren were likewise wounded (Sidney Waldren remaining with the battalion and William Thomas Waldren being transferred to the Machine Gun Corps following treatment). It is thought Frederick Harry Waldren and Edward Carter either escaped unscathed or lightly wounded not requiring a return to England.

On Arthur’s recovery, he returned to France and re-joined the 2nd Hampshires probably during October/November 1916, he would now re-join Edward Carter...

The Battle of the Somme was coming to an end with worsening conditions, each side now trying to obtain the best positions in which to get through the upcoming winter before a planned re-start to the Somme offensive in Spring 1917. The 2nd Hampshires within 29th Division would now need to reorganise to make the best of the changing situation.

Having survived the horrors of both Gallipoli and the Somme, Arthur would be wounded again in late November 1916, possibly just days or even hours after returning to them, while the battalion was in the front line to the north-east of the village of Les Boeufs…

The war diary of the 2nd Hampshire for this period:

November 21st: Battalion moved up to the firing line NE of LES BOUEFS in relief of Newfoundland Regt. The 3 Brigades of 29th Division have now formed 2 Composite Brigades of 6 Battalions each, of 87th and 88th Brigades. The system of relief now, is to be 3 days in the Front line trenches, 3 in Support BERNAFAY WOOD and the BRIQUETERIE, MONTAUBAN and 3 in Reserve at MANSEL CAMP near MAMETZ and CARNOY CAMP, Casualties: Other Ranks – 1 wounded, 22 sick to hospital

November 22nd: Casualties: Other Ranks – 1 killed, 7 wounded, 6 sick to hospital. 2/Lt D.G.Baker joined Battalion. Draft of 17 joined battalion.

November 23rd: Casualties: Other Ranks – 8 sick to hospital. 2/Lt S.J.Rhodes joined battalion. Draft of 6 joined battalion

November 24th: Battalion was relieved by Royal Fusiliers and moved back to MANSEL CAMP. Casualties: Other Ranks – 2 killed, 14 wounded.

The Carter family in Whitchurch were known to be devout Christians, being staunch supporters of the Salvation Army. It is likely to have been a great shock when Arthur James Carter had voluntarily enlisted into a fighting unit in March 1915. However, there had been another change…Arthur’s older brother, William Cecil Carter, had now enlisted into the Royal Army Medical Corps, a unit in which he would not have to bear arms…

Thanks to a letter home from William, the final part of Arthur James Carter’s story can be told…

Arthur is now believed to have been one of the 14 Other Ranks wounded on 24th November 1916 - a gunshot wound to the back/chest that had penetrated his lung.

William’s letter:

“Dear Father and Mother,

No doubt you will be pleased to get a letter from me after such a long time. I have been pleased to get yours though in the past I have been unable to answer them.

I am always thinking of you and praying that God will bless you and keep you all that we may meet again, though … that time comes that the family … will be broken, for He has seen fit to take one of us to Himself and I pray, dear Mother, that he will give you grace enough to bear up, we are often called upon to bear very heavy crosses but the promise … and it’s a very blessed thought that the cross is not greater than his Grace and my message to you is to look ever to Jesus and He will carry you through.

You mentioned in your last letter how you wished we could meet out here, well I have found out that he [Arthur James Carter] was sent to a Unit in my Division and was quite close to me, he couldn’t have been with them long for the last letter I had from him was sent from the [Divisional] Base, how I wish I had known it so that I could have seen him, but there I suppose it was not meant to be.

I went up the line, the day after he was buried and I find that I slept close to his grave and must have passed by it 3 or 4 times a day and didn’t know it. [This might infer that William was employed as a stretcher bearer taking casualties from the railway junction at Grove House to the Casualty Clearing Station]

I found out from a patient in the hospital that he was on a working party and was laying a piece of timber down which he had been carrying and a bullet had hit him in the back and went through his lungs, he was carried down from the line to the Dressing Station where he died soon after, he was buried with full military honours and the chaplain said he had a very nice … I am going to try and send it as I feel.

I should like to trust you are all well at home, glad to say I am quite alright. God has been good to me since I have been out here and I have much to thank Him for, it isn’t much I can do for Him while I am here but I am doing my best to love and serve Him, that is all He wants though it is not much. He in His great love for us accepts it and makes us glad.

Ciss tells me that Arthur said before he left home if he never comes back he had a better home to go to, he was a good lad and I believe today he is in Heaven where by proving fidelity we shall see him again. Must close now Mother and Dad, all the best dears and praying that God’s Blessing may be upon you.

Your loving son, Will xxxx

74034 Pte W.C.Carter”

Arthur James Carter died of his wounds two days later on 26th November 1916, aged 20, at 2/2 (London) Casualty Clearing Stations near the village of Meaulte. He was subsequently buried in the attached (Grove Town) Military Cemetery, Meaulte.

Private Arthur James Carter 15852, 2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment is buried at Grove Town Military Cemetery on the Somme: the inscription on his headstone chosen by this mother: “Victorious his fall, He rose as he fell, With Jesus, In Glory to dwell"

Arthur is commemorated on the War Memorial in All Hallows Church, Whitchurch:

For his war service, Arthur James Carter was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. 

Arthur’s story mentions both relatives and friends who played a key part, here are their details:

Edward Carter: 15853 Pte E.Carter, 2nd Bn. Hampshire Regt., son of Denis and Katherine Carter. Killed in Action 27th January 1917, buried in A.I.F. Burial Ground, Somme see: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/263875/e-carter/

William Cecil Carter: 74034 Pte W.T.Carter, Royal Army Medical Corps, son of John and Mary Louisa Carter, survived.

Frederick Harry Waldren: 7606 Sgt F.H.Waldren, 1st Bn. Hampshire Regiment, son of George W. and Sarah Ann Waldren, survived. Carried on in the Army post war and was commissioned in 1942. He married, but lost his son in WW2, 908523 AC1 Leslie Maurice Waldren RAFVR, 208 Sqdn. See: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2058297/leslie-maurice-waldren/?fbclid=IwY2xjawG-0hZleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHcJB3bHZ22_9yCEJbX5mD-1kLxKXFpAPt9pAx2fu1yiORALG4_SCZXjFGQ_aem_BVvlUuJABwkmJJeiik3hKw

William Thomas Waldren: 9128 (1st Bn. Hampshire Regt.), 4286 (Machine Gun Corps) C/Sgt W.C.Waldren MM and bar, son of George W. and Sarah Ann Waldren. Survived.

Sidney Albert Waldren: 15854 A/Sgt S.A.Waldren, 1st Bn. Hampshire Regt., son of George W. and Sarah Ann Waldren. Survived…On 3rd December 1916 (the week the news of Arthur James Carter’s death would have come to the Carter family!), Sidney married Martha Bessie Carter, sister of Alfred James Carter at Whitchurch. Sidney would survive the war but die in 1925. Sidney and Bessie would have two sons Sidney and Leonard.

Also…

Arthur James Carter’s sister, Louisa Mary Carter, had married Edward Cross in Whitchurch in 1911. Edward Cross served as 31628 Pte E.Cross, 1st Bn., Wiltshire Regt., he died of wounds on 29th April 1918, and was buried in Dozinghem Military Cemetery, Ypres. He is also commemorated on the All Hallows Church war memorial in Whitchurch. See: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/620337/edward-cross/  

This story is dedicated to Simon Waldren, a former work colleague and friend. Simon knew of my interest in the Great War and, many years ago, showed me the photograph of his Grandfather, Sidney Albert Waldren, and mentioned other relatives who had been killed. Simon had little other information to add about these family members…however, with this story of his Grandmother’s brother, Arthur James Carter, he and his family now have their inter-linked stories…preserved now ‘For Evermore’ by the CWGC.

David P.Whithorn

Christmas 2024