Current Information:

Age-18

32, Brickland Road, Leyton

Maroc British Cemetery, Grenay, France

Throughout October 1918, the last full month of the war, the Allies were advancing all along the Western Front against a demoralised and drastically shrinking German Army which could do little other than fight, often desperate, rear guard actions. These continued to take a heavy toll of both sides, but failed to halt the forward momentum. Towns, villages and whole areas, which had been under German occupation for four long years were now liberated in a series of operations.

58th Division moved to the front just to the north of Lens on 30th September, 1918, and on the night of 2nd October, when it was discovered that the enemy in front of them had retired, 173 Brigade and 174 Brigade pushed forward into these vacated positions from where they sent out patrols over the next three nights. On the night of 6th October, a patrol from the 3rd London battalion of 173 Brigade ran into heavy machine-gun fire and except for one man, who managed to crawl back to the battalion’s lines, the patrol was not seen again. As the rest of the day, according to the Battalion Diary was quiet, it is likely that Arthur Earthy was killed while on this patrol.