Army
Dunk, Arthur Lewis Spencer
Arthur Lewis Spencer Dunk
Rank: Lance Corporal
Regiment: 1st Battalion, South Wales Borderers
Parents: Mr A S & Mrs Jane Dunk
Parents Address: 27 Horntye Road, St Leonards
Wife: Ethel May Mewett (Nee Tester, formerly Dunk)
Daughter: Nora E Dunk
Other Info: An article published in the Hastings & St Leonards Observer on 12th October 1918 reads; “Killed in action on September 15th, 1918, aged 27. Husband of Mrs Dunk, Forest Row, Sussex and eldest son of Mrs A. S. Dunk, of Hamilton, Canada, late of St Leonards”
According to CWGC, Arthur is remembered at Vadencourt British Cemetery, Maissemy, grave reference V.C.12.
Additional information from the Lives of the First World War website.
Published: October 1918
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2 COMMENTS
In the 1911 census the family was at 8-roomed 27 Horntye Road, St Leonards on Sea. The absent father was Arthur Spencer Dunk, painter, so the head of household was Sarah Jane Dunk. They had been married 27 years and had had 10 children.
There were three daughters (one a dressmaker) and two sons in the household, including Arthur, age 20, painter and decorator, born St Peter’s parish, St Leonards; he was a “worker”, so he did not have his own business. The family was at the same address in the 1901 census, with father an employer as a “house painter etc.”, so perhaps Arthur worked for his father. They were also there in the 1891 census.
The family travelled from Liverpool to Quebec on the “Lake Manitoba”, arriving 2 May in 1912, in steerage class: parents and seven children, both father and son Arthur a painter and paperhanger. They were intending to live at Hamilton, Ontario.
The Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 5 October 1918, gives a good account, besides the cited references. It says that “He came to England and enlisted in the Home Counties R.E. in September 1915, and was married the same month. He was transferred to the 1st South Wales Borderers in 1916, since when he has been in France, and taken part in much severe fighting. A letter from the Chaplain of his Regiment states that he was hit by a machine gun bullet. Deceased leaves a widow and daughter aged one year and ten months”. It adds that the widow was living in Forest Row.
He had married, 1 September 1915, Nutley, Sussex, Ethel May, daughter of William Tester, gardener; the groom was a painter. In the 1911 census she was the cook at 12 Dane Road, St Leonards, age 18, born Nutley. They had a daughter, Nora Ethel, born 20 November 1916.
The widow married again, 2 June 1923, Forest Row, Sussex, as a 31 year-old. Her groom was Reginald Philip Mewett, 37, a decorator, from Crockham Hill, Kent; she was of Wych Cross, Forest Row. He died in 1953 at Southborough, Kent; she died in 1978 in the Uckfield area, Sussex.
Nora the daughter married, 1938, Tonbridge, Kent area Reginald Wesley Edwards, a farm and estate labourer, and they were in Uckfield in 1939. He died in 2000 in Hampshire, while she died in 2004 in Portsmouth.
The parents were at 14 Fennell Avenue, Hamilton in the 1921 Canadian census, with three children.
Thank you for this interesting research Stephen. Regards, Kieron