Arthur William Pearman

A Private with the 2/7th Battalion, Arthur died on 29th of July 1916 at the age of 24. 

Arthur was born at Ashby in 1892, a son of Arthur and Eliza Pearman. In 1901 his family lived at The Dell, Ashby, and this was still their home in 1911, when Arthur was an accountant’s clerk. 

Arthur attended Somerleyton School and, on 18 September 1906, became a student at Lowestoft School of Science. He was a member of the Somerleyton Methodist Union. 

Arthur was working for the British Thomson Houston Company, at Rugby, when he enlisted in the Army, at Rugby, Warwickshire. He joined the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, service number 2991, and was posted to the 2/7th Battalion and arrived in France on 21 May 1916. 

There is no record available that shows exactly when, and how, Arthur wounded, but it is likely that it was during the attack near Farquissart on 19 July 1916, when the 2/7th Battalion sustained over 300 casualties. Artur was evacuated to England. He died of wounds at the Victoria Hospital, Keighley. 

A report describing Arthur’s funeral was published in the Bradford Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 2 August 1916, page 5:

DOUBLE MILITARY FUNERAL

NOTABLE KEIGHLEY EVENT – INTERMENT AT MORTON CEMETERY

There was a double military funeral at the new Morton Cemetery this afternoon, this being the second interment event which has taken place since its opening on September 11th last year. 
The remains were those of Private E.A.M. Michael, of the Australian Imperial Forces, who died in the Morton Banks Military Base Hospital on Monday, and Private Arthur Wm. Pearman of the Warwick Regiment, whose home was at Lowestoft, and who died at the Keighley Victoria Hospital last Sunday. 
Both were fine young fellows, 23 years of age. Michael was a giant in stature, standing well over six feet. He joined the Army from Fiji, where he was living when war broke out.
Pearman’s two sisters both attended the funeral.
The interment took place in the same vault in a space which had been specially set apart by the Keighley Rural District Council in the cemetery. 
The hearse containing the body of Pearman left the Victoria Hospital at 1.15 and proceeded to the Morton Banks Hospital for the remains of the other hero. A firing party and buglers to sound the Last Post were in attendance. 
A number of the wounded soldiers form the Keighley hospitals were present to pay a last tribute to their departed brothers who have paid the supreme sacrifice for the sake of the Empire.
This, by the way, was the first funeral that has taken place in the Keighley district of any soldier who has died from wounds received in action. There have been many military funerals but all have been of men who have died in the course of training, or who have sustained fatal injuries through accidents in this country.
The flag at Keighley Town Hall was flown at half mast.      

Arthur is commemorated on the Rugby Wesleyan War Memorial and the British Thomson Houston Company War Memorial at Rugby. 

Arthur’s brother Henry served with the Suffolk Regiment and died in 1916.