2nd Lt Arthur Grant Bourne Chittenden, 2nd Bn, Manchester Regiment

Second Lieutenant Arthur Grant Bourne Chittenden of the 2nd Battalion, Manchester Regiment, died of wounds on this day - 9th September - in 1914. He was born in 1894, his birth registered in Epsom, Surrey and, according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, was the 20 year old son of Mr and Mrs C. G. T. F. Chittenden of High Croft, Steyning, Sussex.

The Bond of Sacrifice, published in 1915, carries a small entry on - and a portrait photo of - Arthur. It reads:

"[Arthur Grant Bourne Chittenden] who was reported as having died of wounds received in action, in France, the actual date of his death not being known, was the youngest son of the late Charles Grant Thomas Faithfull Chittenden and Mrs Chittenden, Steyning, Sussex. Second Lieutenant Chittenden, who was only twenty years old when he died, was gazetted to the Manchester Regiment on the 24th January 1914."

Arthur's heavily annotated medal index card indicates that he arrived overseas with the 2nd Manchester Regiment on 14th August 1914. In 1917, his mother applied for the 1914 Star and in 1921 the clasp for this medal was also sent. The "roses" were not sent as these were to be affixed to the 1914 Star medal ribbon when worn on a jacket. As Arthur was dead, the roses would therfore not have been required. Mrs Chittenden's address is shown as High Croft, Steyning.

Arthur is buried in Montreuil-aux-Lions British Cemetery which was made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields of the Aisne. The cemetery contains 16 special memorials and Arthur has one of these.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk (MIC)
Army Ancestry
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission