Current Information:

Age-21

Enlisted-Clerkenwell

On 6th February, 1915, the 4th Middlesex battalion of 8 Brigade, 3rd Division left their billets in La Clytte and moved into trenches at Vierstraat a few kilometres to the south of Ypres in Belgium, where they remained until relieved on 10th February. Here they had to contend with the usual sniping and shelling as a result of which the battalion sustained some casualties. One of these was Arthur Mantell who was killed on 10th February but the battalion diary has no information concerning his death. The attrition rate among British soldiers on the Western Front was on average 300 each day and 60% of these were as a result of shellfire. When not involved in an actual battle it was either shell fire or a sniper’s bullet that caused most deaths and injuries.