10th Battalion,Worcestershire Regiment
Arthur Thomas Fowler was born and bred in Charfield and was a textile mill hand. He was eighteen years of age at the start of the Great War but declared himself one year older when enlisting for Army service at Wotton-under-Edge, on 3 September 1914.
He joined the 10th Worcesters at Tidworth eight days later and after a period of training was sent to France on 19 July 1915. Apart from a minor foot injury, in September of that year, he remained unscathed until 7 January 1916, when he suffered a bullet wound to his left side in the stomach area, whilst in trenches at Neuve Chapelle.
He was initially treated at 57th Field Ambulance and No 7 Casualty Clearing Station, before being transferred to a Base Hospital at Calais, where he underwent an operation on 16 January. Four days later he was evacuated to England and the Central Military Hospital at Colchester. He then suffered from appendicitis and went on to have further operations and treatment at Romford, Birmingham and Plymouth. He was discharged from the Army as ‘no longer physically fit for war service’ on 18 October, the Medical Board noting that his condition and appearance were of ‘great weakness’.
His injuries continued to trouble him and in the following month he was admitted to Bristol Hospital for yet another operation. He returned home and died, as a consequence of his wounds, on 24 November 1916. He was buried, Five days later, in Charfield (St James) Churchyard.
Strangely, Private Fowler’s name does not appear in Soldiers Died in the Great War, nor is he included in the CWGC Register. His grave is now unmarked; however he is commemorated on the Charfield village war memorial.