Current Information:

Enlisted-Shoreditch

Philosophe British Cemetery, Mazingarbe, France

40th Division, including 20th Middlesex of 121 Brigade, arrived in France in May 1916 and after a period of trench instruction, took over front line duties at Loos, a mining village on the outskirts of Lens where they stayed throughout the summer and autumn.

On 13th October, 1916, 20th Middlesex were relieved from the front line and moved back to billets in the village of Mazingarbe. From here they sent out work parties to the front line each night and although the Battalion Diary did not record any deaths on 19th October, 1916 it may well have been that Arthur Whitaker was killed when on one of these work parties. Battalion Diaries did not always have a complete picture.