Wilford, Arthur William

Source: Edited excerpt from: Michael Doyle Their Name Liveth For Evermore: The Great War Roll of Honour for Leicestershire and Rutland.

Arthur was the son of Josiah Noel Wilford, a joiner, and his wife Lucy Ellen Wilford (nee Wilkinson), who lived in the Melton Mowbray district of Leicestershire.

He was born in  1886 and his siblings were Annie (born 1882), John Battey Noel (born 1885), Josiah Edmond (born 1888) and Jesse (born 1889).

In April 1891 the family home was at 22, Southern Lane, Melton Mowbray.  Living with the family was Arthur’s widowed paternal grandmother, Jemima Wilford.

In 1901 Arthur was employed as a watchmaker’s apprentice and was still living in the family home at 22, Southern Lane, Melton Mowbray.

In 1911 Arthur was absent from the family home and was living as a boarder at 18 Rosefield Street Leamington whilst working at Tustains Jewellers in Regent Street, a shop that remains on the same street to this day.

Arthur married Lily Price, a Warwick girl, in 1916.  By 1939, Lily was still a widow and was living with her brother, Frederick E Price at 22 Packmore Street.

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Local War Item in Warwick Advertiser 8th September 1917

Lance Corporal Wilford had only been in France for eight months before being killed and it took around three weeks for the news of his death to get back to his wife.