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Duke of Wellington (West Riding) Regiment, 1/7th Battalion.
Arthur Downing was born in Gipton, Leeds in Spring 1891 the son of farm worker George Laister Downing (1861- 1838) and his wife Selina Spink (1855-1892) who married in Brayton, near Selby on 26th September 1880. Sadly Selina died, aged 38 years in early 1892 leaving five children including Arthur. In spring 1900 Arthur’s widowed father, George, married his second wife, Elizabeth Spink. Elizabeth was born to single mother, Jane Spink, in 1875 and a relative of Selina. By 1901 George and Elizabeth were living with five children, including Arthur, on Headlands Road Ossett. By 1911 the family, now including seven children, had moved to live at High Street, Gawthorpe.
Arthur had flown the Gawthorpe nest before 1911 and moved to live in Otley where he worked as a carter. He met Jean (aka Jane) Waters Skelton born in Cockpen, Midlothian, Scotland but latterly of Millington, near Pocklington who, in 1911, was working as a kitchen maid at the 36 roomed Farnley Hall, Otley. The couple married at Millington Parish Church on 19th June 1915 and lived together at Rose Cottage, West Chevin, Otley. They had two children, John Arthur (born 9th September 1915) and Marjorie Annie (born 13th October 1917).
Farnley Hall, Otley in 1908 which was Jane Skelton’s workplace in 1911
Arthur Downing at War
War was declared on 4th August 1914 and sometime later Arthur enlisted at Otley and joined the 1st/7th battalion Duke of Wellington (West Riding) Regiment. It is not certain when Arthur joined his Regiment or when he served overseas in WWI since his service records were destroyed in a Luftwaffe attack on London in September 1940. Some 60% or so of all of the WWI service records were lost in that attack. However his subsequent posthumous awards of the British and Victory Service Medals indicate that he did not serve overseas until 1916 and his service number suggests it may have been 1917. Nonetheless it is possible that he enlisted and was training in the UK earlier than 1917.
It is also possible that Arthur attested under the Derby Scheme issued in October 1915. In Arthur’s case his age and marital status would have meant that he would have been mobilised in April 1916 allowing several months of training before he served overseas in early 1917 by which time as a Territorial he would have served with a six digit service number.
Pursuit to the Selle October 1918
Arthur’s 1st/7th battalion Duke of Wellington (West Riding) Regiment served in the 147th (2nd West Riding) Brigade in the 49th West Riding Division. In 1917 he would have been posted to Belgium where he would have encountered the Operations on the Flanders Coast (aka Hush) and the Battle of Poelcapelle in a phase of the Third Battles of the Ypres. In 1918 his regiment would have seen action in several skirmishes comprising the Battles of the Lys; this included battles at Estaires, Messines, Bailleul, Kemmel Ridge, and Scherpenberg. These conflicts were followed by phases of the Final Advance in Picardy as the enemy was driven back to Germany determined by the Pursuit to the Selle in October 1918. This was to be Arthur’s last stand.
Private Arthur Downing was killed in action on 11th October 1918, two days before his daughter’s first birthday and a month before the German Empire surrendered and hostilities ceased as The Great War came to an end on 11th November 1918. Private Arthur Downing is remembered at the Wellington Cemetery, Rieux-En-Cambresis where he rests at Section I. Row E. Grave 8.
The village was captured in October 1918, in the Pursuit to the Selle, and the cemetery was made by battalions of the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment immediately after. It was then increased by the concentration here of graves of four UK soldiers who fell in October 1918 and were buried in other cemeteries.
Meanwhile back in Ossett after The Great War
Three years later back in Ossett the 1921 Census recorded Arthur’s father, George L. Downing and his wife, Elizabeth and five of their children including the second son, Wilfred aged 22 years, living in Gawthorpe. The Census recorded that Wilfred Downing was chauffeur to Dr. W.L.R. Wood, Surgeon of Sowood House, The Green, Ossett.
Captain William Louis René Wood M.C. served in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) in The Great War 1914-1919 and was awarded the Military Cross, a decoration for gallantry during active operations in the presence of the enemy. His medal card also includes the word “Emblem” which signifies that he was also Mentioned in Dispatches. More is told of Captain W.L.R.Wood on this link to the Ossett Heritage website
Following Arthur’s death in October 1918 his wife, Jean (aka) Jane Downing (nee Skelton) was left with two children, John Arthur and Marjorie Annie born in 1915 and 1917 respectively. Jane had moved to 99, Cross Green, Otley where the authorities addressed their correspondence to Jane Downing and forwarded her widow’s and children’s pension and allowances. Perhaps it was all too much for her and in 1920 Jane died aged 32 years and was buried at Cockpen and Carrington Parish Churchyard, Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, Scotland.
Two children, aged five and three years were orphans and penniless following the deaths of their parents in 1918 and 1920.
Who would be their guardians? It appears there were three over an unspecified period. The name and address of the earliest volunteer is illegible; the 2nd volunteer was Miss Helen Turnbull of Edinburgh and the third and last volunteer guardian is Mrs Annie Shanks of 23 Miller Crescent Edinburgh.
Arthur’s father remained living in Ossett on Springstone Avenue until he died, aged 78 years, in February 1938. He was buried at Ossett Holy Trinity Church on 23rd February 1938.
Arthur Downing lived in Ossett and was killed in action on 11th October 1918 serving his country so that we can live our lives in relative freedom. He will be remembered by his name at the Ossett War Memorial alongside his brothers and sisters in arms. We know them as The Ossett Fallen.
Research by the Ossett Fallen Team 2023. Biography by Alan Howe.
Sources Commonwealth War Graves Commission
https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/308077/a-downing/
