Arthur Howe
The soldier:
Arthur Howe enlisted in to the army in Kings Lynn, Norfolk. He was assigned to the Norfolk Regiment and given regimental number 40779.
He died on Friday the 4th May 1917, aged 36, whilst serving as a Private in the 9th Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment.
Arthur Howe is buried in Plot G, Row 1, Grave 16 of the Calais Southern Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France.
His name also appears on both Snettisham’s memorials and ‘Roll of Honour’.
The man:
Arthur Howe was born on 20th October 1880 in Tattersett, Norfolk. His parents were John and Mary Jane Howe (nee Hook) who had married in Tattersett on the 16th April 1880.
Arthur was baptised on the 28th November 1880.
In the 1881 census baby Arthur was shown living in Tattersett with his parents. John and Mary Jane were both 21 and John’s occupation was recorded as ‘labourer’.
By the 1891 census the family were living in a house on the Walsingham Road, Tattersett. Arthur was now 10 and had several younger siblings;
Celia Eliza (later called Eliza) born in 1882 and baptised on the 5th March 1882, John Howe born in 1885 and baptised on the 27th November 1885, Sarah Howe born in 1888 and baptised on the 24th June 1888 and Beatrice Howe born in 1890 and baptised on the 17th August, 1890.
By the 1901 census the family had moved to Weasenham All Saints. John and Mary Jane were now 40. Arthur was 21 and recorded as a ‘single’ ‘agricultural labourer’. Celia Eiza had left home. John was 15 and had left school, his occupation being recorded as ‘bricklayer/labourer’. Beatrice was at school and two younger siblings had joined the family Ethel born in 1893 and baptised on the 25th June 1893 and Robert born on 28th May 1898.
In 1906 the family moved to Snettisham, Norfolk. We know this as Robert was enrolled in to Snettisham school (Snettisham’s still existing primary school) on the 6th June 1906 and remained schooled there until the 19th April 1912 when he left to work.
In 1907 Arthur’s father John died at the age of 47 in Snettisham, the death being registered in Docking.
In the 1911 census a widowed, 50 year old, Mary Jane Howe was living in Station Road, Snettisham as the ‘head of the household’. Arthur (now 29) was still at home as was John (now 24). Both men were recorded as ‘single’ and working as ‘farm labourers’. Robert was 12 and still at school. Also at the address was a 2 year old infant, Henry John Beaumont recorded as Mary Jane’s Grandson.
All of Arthurs’ siblings bar John went on to have families of their own and survived the war; Eliza married William Dawes in 1904 in Freebridge Lynn. Sarah married Jesse Beaumont (the link to Henry John Beaumont) in Stamford Hill, London on the 20th February 1909. Ethel married Reginald William Otter in Hampstead London on Christmas Day, 1917. Beatrice married George Eke in Walsingham in the summer of 1926 and Robert married Edith Florence Hoadley in West Hampstead, London on the 22nd April 1923.
Arthur’s brother John died in Fakenham in 1950 at the age of 64. There are no readily identifiable records of marriage for him.
