The story begins when you look with respect at those names inscribed on the Scout War Memorial commemorating those young men who made the Supreme Sacrifice for King and Country in the Great War 1914-1918.

On examining the 12 names on the marble headstone you can easily see that only one of the Scouts is buried beneath the monument, that is Arthur Thompson who died in the UK from wounds and whose family kindly and generously gave permission for their son’s grave to be used as a permanent reminder of the total sacrifice made by him and his brother Scouts.

Arthur had been one of the early Scouts back in 1908.

But on looking further into the list of names and comparing the entries to those on the Irthlingborough War Memorial, one name is curiously missing from the Finedon Road Memorial.

That name was ‘Arthur Middleton’ the search was on!

Studying memorials in the surrounding towns and villages, Arthur’s name was discovered engraved upon the Higham Ferrers Borough Cenotaph in the Market Square.

No explanation of who he was, when he died or his family connections could be readily traced.

We knew that from the Scout Group records meticulously compiled by the late first-Scoutmaster Jesse Berwick, we had Arthur Listed as joining up into the R.A.M.C. and listed under the banner of ‘war-dead’.

Initially checking the comprehensive records at Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the R.A.M.C. historical files, no records appeared to exist about this ‘mystery man’.

Much careful research by Jean Rowlands and also as result of an appeal by a member of the Rushden Historical Group, more details emerged about Arthur.

Yes, he was a soldier, Private 25897 in the R.A.M.C but he was invalided out on health grounds on 28^th March 1916 and died in Higham Ferrers in early 1917 but not officially recorded by the War Department as a ‘war death’. He was 36 and had tried to join the Navy at Devonport but eventually joined the R.A.M.C. enlisting on 8^th August 1914 an early volunteer as were almost all the Scouts.

He died as result of diabetes, a little known condition of that time, and left a wife but no children. He lived at 6, Commercial Street, Higham Ferrers , was baptised a Wesleyan and married Catherine Mary Bettles ( possibly of Irthlingborough) in 1907.

He had siblings Walter, Gracie, and Mary.

Walter, his brother, married Florence Burditt ( Aunt Flo) the sisterof the writer’s Grandfather, Harry Burditt! A family member remembers references to Arthur many years later.

Arthur would have been too old at 29-30 years old to be a Scout in 1908 but was a friend of Jesse Berwick and Willam Bromage. He was an early Assistant Scoutmaster or Helper elper hence his inclusion on the Scout Memorial and at his family’s request included on to the Higham Ferrers Borough Memorial, believing he died as result of military service.

Arthur is most probably depicted in the earliest Scout photo taken in 1908 along with early Scouts from both Irthlingborough and Rushden.

Lyle Abbott

August 2011.