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Rifleman Arthur H. WEST, London Regiment (Queen’s Westminster Rifles)
1890 - 1st July 1916

Born in Sidcup in 1890, Arthur West was just one of the ‘doomed’ generation who it
seemed were destined for an early death in the cause of the British Empire.

In 1901, living in Black Horse Road , Sidcup with his parents and seven brothers and
sisters, whose ages varied from 16 years to three months, young 11-year-old Arthur had
already left school and was working locally, along with his 14-year-old brother, George, as
an errand boy at a local chemist. Their father’s income from his milk rounds was never
enough for the rent, food and clothing needed for such a large family, and as soon as they
were of working age, even at the very young age of eleven, it was vital that the boys should
find some means of helping with the family finances.

By 1914, the family were living in one of the tiny Mayfield Cottages, Cray Road and when
the chance of an adventure came his way, Arthur enthusiastically enrolled and was placed
in the Queen’s Royal Westminster Rifles, The London Regiment, which initially formed in
August 1914 at 58 Buckingham Gate, London.

On mobilisation the London Regiment moved to Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire for
training and landed at Le Havre, in France, on 3rd November 1914. For the first six months
the Battalion was in the Armentieres Sector before moving up to the Salient in May 1915.
The 16th Battalion, Westminster Rifles, was just one of the Divisions who took part in the
disastrous Battle of the Somme attack. They suffered over 600 casualties from the 750
men who went into action.

Rifleman Arthur West was one of those killed on the notorious first day of the Somme. Like
many hundreds of other families throughout the country, his distraught parents and his
brothers and sisters were left to mourn their tragic loss, but comforted by the knowledge
that they could be proud that he had done his best for the country and the Empire.

In Memoriam: Arthur West has no known grave but his name has been recorded, along
with over 72,000 other men, on the magnificent Thiepval Memorial, Belgium

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