Family :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

The official dates cover the period from 15th June 1915 to 8th August 1915. This is the period on the Western Front following the piecemeal engagements North of the La Bassee canal at Aubers Ridge, Festubert & Givenchy but before the Battle of Loos, the largest Western Front battle of 1915.

Detail :

Lieutenant Arthur Montagu WILLIAMS, 7th Batallion Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment) (Robin Hood Rifles) Arthur WILLIAMS was born 21.12.1883 and educated at Nottingham Boys High School. He enlisted in the Robin Hoods as Private in 1900. By 1909 he had been promoted to 2/Lieutenant and in 1913 to Lieutenant. He went to France with his battalion on 25.2.1915 and was appointed Machine Gun Officer. He was killed in action on 15.6.1915 at Kemmel during a German attack on the line, being killed by a fragment of shell which fractured his skull. He was awarded the British War Medal, Victory Medal, and is buried in the Kemmel Chateau Military Cemetery Belgium., where the register states date of death as 7.6.1915. The CWGC and 7th Battalion History both have 15 Jun 1915 as date of death. In actual fact it was the 15th. The 7th Foresters were relieving the 8th Foresters in trenches on the Kemmel side of Wytschaete on the evening of 15 Jun. The Germans had just exploded a mine under the 8th Foresters and attacked and captured part of their position. WILLIAMS and his MG section were in the process of relieving 2Lt AFO Dobson and the 8th Foresters MG section when both MG offrs were killed by the same shell. WILLIAMS was the first officer of the Robin Hood Rifles to be killed in the Great War.

De Ruvigny's WILLIAMS, ARTHUR MONTAGU, Solicitor, Lieut. Machine Gun Section, 7th (Robin Hood) Battn. Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regt.) (T.F.), only s. of the late Arthur Williams, of 109, Forest Road, Nottingham, Solicitor, by his wife, Mary, dau. of the late Thomas Morley, of 48, Addison Street, Nottingham ; b. Nottingham, 21 Dec. 1883 ; educ. Nottingham Boys' High School ; served his articles with Capt. J. A. H. Green, admitted a Solicitor in 1905, and was in practice in Nottingham and had lately been a partner in the firm of Messrs. Browne, Son & Williams. He had joined the Robin Hoods as a private on leaving school in 1900, and became a 2nd Lieut. when the Territorial Act came into operation, and Was gazetted Lieut. 8 June, 1913. On the outbreak of war he volunteered with the Battn. for foreign service, went to France, 25 Feb. 1915, and was killed in action at Kemmel, 15 June, 1915; unm. He was buried in Kemmel Churchyard. One of his men (Private T. Linney, 1867) wrote : "On the night of 15 June, 1916, at about 9.30 p.m. the Germans thought to make a surprise attack on our trenches south of Ypres, by first of all blowing up our trenches and then by violently bombarding our position by artillery and hand grenades. The 8th Battn. Sherwood Foresters, were in the trenches at the time, and were expecting to be relieved that night by the 7th Battn. Sherwood Foresters, this accounting for the officers of the 7th being in the trenches in the afternoon to view the positions. After the violent bombardment the Germans tried to charge the trench, and this being the first severe attack the 8th Battn. had been in they did not know which way to turn or what to do ; already they had lost a large number of men and officers and were naturally panic stricken, when Lieut. Williams came to the rescue. Already he had been to fetch a wounded officer, Lieut. Dobson, in, and seen him safe ; when the Germans stormed the trenches, he gathered the men together, and by his cool manner and words made a desperate stand against the coming onslaught ; the Germans had got as far as the barbed wire, when Lieut. Williams shouted to the men " Come on men, if we've got to die, we will die fighting," this put new life into the men and by desperate fighting the Germans were driven back, but Lieut. Williams, who had saved the situation at such a critical time, was killed instantaneously, by part of a shell fracturing his skull " ; and Capt. G. H. Stubington: ''It was after dark and he had just gone into the trenches which the Robin Hoods were taking over from the 8th Battu. when Lieut. Dobson of the 8th Battn. was wounded by a shell. Arthur went to help him when another shell exploded and killed them both instantly. He died on duty and I need not tell you how much we feel his loss. He was a most efficient officer and also in my case a close personal friend ; I have, as you are aware, known him for years and as far as Machine Gun work is concerned, I feel that I have lost my right hand man. . . . The Officer Commanding desires me to add that the Battn. has suffered a great loss by his death, and he will be very much missed by all ranks to whom he had endeared himself, and especially by his brother officers." Lieut. Williams, who was a Freeman of the City of Nottingham by birth, had taken his Musketry and Machine Gun Course and had qualified as an Instructor of Musketry. He was a member of, and played for, the Notts. Amateur Cricket Club; was for some time Secretary of the Nottingham Children's Hospital and Hon. Secretary of the Red Cross for Notts, and was a member of the Newstead Lodge of Freemasons."

Commemorated on the Notts Amateur County Cricket Roll of Honour and the Nottingham High School Roll of Honour.

Masonic :

Initiate of Newstead Lodge. Further joined Dame Agnes Mellers Lodge No. 3498 in October 1911, shortly after the Lodge was warranted. His war service is recorded in the contribution ledgers and shows him "Killed in Action 15th June 1915."

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley