Arthur Maiden, Age 25

Private PLY/1029(S), 1st Battalion, Royal Marine Light Infantry.

Royal Marine Light Infantry, Badge.

The Maiden brothers were all sons of William & Emily Maiden of 25 Beech Street, Manchester. Who had previously lived at Sandy Bank row, Dawley where the family lived in accommodation of three rooms which accommodated the couple and their eight children. William had worked whilst living in Dawley as a clay miner.

They had all been born and bred in Dawley before the family moved to Manchester; according to the 1901 census they were all resident in Dawley living at 97 Sandy Row, Doseley with two other brothers, Albert and Elias and a sister. The brothers had all attended the National School in Dawley and it is known that one of the brothers Albert was working as a tile presser but little else is known about the family prior to their move.

At the beginning of 1917 the 5 brothers were all serving with the armed forces and Mr & Mrs Maiden were in for unimaginable shock after shock.

The first to fall was Arthur who although serving in the Royal Marines was attached to the Royal Naval division who were serving in the trenches in the Somme area of France. Arthur was killed in action on the 17th February 1917 and his body never found, his name appears on the Thiepval Memorial on Pier/Face 1A.

Arthur had married Mary Holmes at Madeley in 1913 and they lived at 14 Beech Street, Peel Green, Patricoft at the time Arthur enlisted on August 17th 1915, after training he left Britain on February 16th 1916 on broad the HMT Olympic (Titanic’s sister ship) and arrived at the Greek island of Lemnos on the 24th.

He joined the 1st battalion RMLI the next day and served until September 16th when he was hospitalized suffering from Influenza, in the days before anti — biotics this was a much more serious illness and it was not until November that he was fit enough to re-join his battalion. By this time the RMLI had been moved to France and were in the vicinity of Beaumont Hamel in the heart of the previous years Some battlefield.

On the evening of February 16th 1917, Arthur and his comrades moved to assembly positions in Pusieux Trench, north of Grandcourt, ready for an attack next morning. Whilst in the line they were subjected to very heavy artillery fire. At 5.45am on the 17th they went over the top in two waves about 20 yards apart and by 6.40am had captured their objective, Known as the Pimple. They consolidated their positions until relieved on the 18th after fighting off several German counter attacks. Arthur was one of 71 men known to have been killed, most having died in the enemy bombardment before and after the attack.

Commonwealth War Graves (Pier and Face 1 A).
Commemorated Thiepval Memorial

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Victory Medal	British War Medal