Arthur Ernest Blogg was born in Wanstead on 7th January 1891. Arthur’s father, George had several jobs, including a baker and a carpenter at Joliffe’s Builders in Wanstead. Arthur lived with his father and his mother, Laura and younger sister, Edith. The young family moved several times to different addresses around Wanstead suggesting difficult financial circumstances. They lived in Nightingale Lane, Cowley Road, and then in rooms at the Wanstead Men’s Meeting Institute on the High Street. By 1914, they were living at Wellesley Road.
In 1911, Arthur was assistant inspector of smith iron. Arthur was engaged to Kate Manby before the war broke out. Kate was born in Wanstead on 4th September 1891. Her father, James, a labourer, died when she was ten, leaving eight children. Kate’s mother made a living by washing, while her brothers worked in carpentry, shunting trains, and telegraph messaging.
In 1915, Arthur enlisted as a private and transferred to the 14th (Service) Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment. Arthur fought in the Battle of the Somme which lasted from 1st July to 14th November 1916. On the first day alone, there were 60,000 British casualties.
On 6th October 1916, the battalion was in the front line in extremely bad weather conditions. It was a quiet day with no attacks by either side but, in what official communiqués called “normal wastage”, three men, including Arthur, were killed in action. Arthur was 25 years old and had survived six months on the Western Front.
Kate Manby never married and she died in 1981, aged 90 years old. Arthur’s sister, Edith, married another war veteran, Frederick Forster of High Street Wanstead. Members of the Forster family are still active members of Wanstead United Reformed Church.
Research by Wanstead United Reformed Church, with thanks to the Forster family
Sources:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Ancestry.com