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Alfred Huntriss Arnold

Captain Alfred Huntriss Arnold was born on 14 August 1892 , the only son of Charles Coomber Arnold of Holme Leigh, Skircoal, Halifax, a Barrister in the Inner Temple and grandson of Sir Alfred Arnold, Member of Parliament for Halifax between 1895 and 1900. His mother was born Isabel Huntriss, daughter of William and Ellen Huntriss of Halifax.

Educated at Uppingham from May 1906, he was a member of the School Fifteen and a Sergeant in the Officer Training Corps. He left in July 1910 entering the Royal Military College at Sandhurst the following year and on completion of his training was gazetted, in February 1912, to the West Yorkshire Regiment. He joined the second battalion in Malta later joining the international force at Skutari in Albania after the evacuation of the town by the Montenegrans serving there for more than twelve months before the outbreak of the Great War.

In August 1914 he rejoined his regiment in Malta proceeding with it to England on 14 September disembarking at Southampton eleven days later. They made their home at Hursley Park , Winchester . The call came on 4 November that they were to proceed immediately to France . Lieutenant Arnold, the Machine Gun Officer, was one of the 30 officers and 986 other ranks that sailed from Southampton aboard the S.S. Mount Temple disembarking in France on 5 November. He fought through the rest of 1914 being gazetted as a Temporary Captain before the end of the year and seemed to have a charmed life.

All this was to change. In March 1915, an attack had been made on Neuve Chappelle, on the 12th the Germans counterattacked but were repulsed with heavy losses, and their artillery raked the West Yorkshire ’s trenches causing heavy casualties. By the end of the day they had two officers wounded; Captain G.H.G. Perry, and Captain A.H. Arnold who had been severely wounded in the shoulder and spine. 114 other ranks had been killed, 31 wounded while a further six were missing.

Evacuated firstly to the Casualty Clearing Station then to Number 7 Stationary Hospital at Boulogne he was evacuated to England on 5 April. He finally found a home at Lady Wimborne’s Auxiliary Hospital at Templeton House, Roehampton and although paralysed wrote two letters to the War Office (copies with the documentation), the latter in November 1916. Recovery of any sort was never an option and Captain Arnold succumbed to his horrific wounds after a long fight for life on 30 December 1916 . He lies buried locally in Grave F. 221 in Barnes (East Sheen) Cemetery, and is commemorated in the Roll of Honour at Halifax Parish Church.