Arthur Oscar Kibblewhite – Royal Engineers, 73rd Field Company

Sapper Arthur Oscar Kibblewhite – Royal Engineers, 73^rd Field Company

Family Background

Arthur Oscar Kibblewhite

Arthur Oscar Kibblewhite was born in 1895 in Chelsea, London, the son of Henry George and Elizabeth Kibblewhite.

1901 Census

By the time of the 1901 Census, the Kibblewhite family were living at 74 Fifth Avenue, Paddington, London. Arthur’s father, Henry (40), born in Gloucestershire, was employed as a Telegraphist, while his mother Elizabeth (41), born in Paddington, managed the household. Their children present were Sydney T. (15), a Railway Clerk; Henry G. (14), working in Upholstery; William G. (12); Arthur O. (6), attending school; and Reginald (1).

1911 Census

Following the death of Arthur’s father in 1908, the family had moved to Swansea by the time of the 1911 Census, where they were residing at 39 Sea View Terrace. Arthur’s mother Elizabeth (51) was head of the household. Her sons present were William Ernest (22), employed as a Railway Clerk; Arthur Oscar (16), working as a Carpenter’s Apprentice; and Reginald (11), who was still attending school.

Military Service and Death

At the time of his enlistment in 1915, Arthur was living at Spring Gardens, West Cross. He served as a Sapper in the Royal Engineers, 73^rd Field Company, a unit attached to the 24^th Division during the Battle of the Somme. By August 1916, the Company was engaged in essential and dangerous engineering duties near the front, including repairing and deepening trenches, constructing strongpoints and dugouts, maintaining communication routes, and laying or repairing barbed-wire defences. These tasks were often carried out under direct enemy observation, with working parties frequently exposed to intense German artillery and trench-mortar bombardment, sniper fire, and the hazards of unstable ground caused by prolonged shelling.

Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects

According to the Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, Sapper Arthur Oscar Kibblewhite was killed in action on 12^th August 1916, during one such period of hazardous engineering work in support of renewed British operations on the Somme front. He is buried at Serre Road Cemetery No. 2, France, one of the largest British cemeteries on the Somme, containing many of those who fell in the fighting north of the Albert–Bapaume road.