Cpl 33019 Arthur Moses Hotson

• Age: 32
• From: Cleethorpes
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• D.O.W Sunday 29th October 1916
• Commemorated at: Etaples Mil Cem
  Panel Ref: VIII.E.11

Arthur Moses Hotson was born in 1884 at Cleethorpes and he was the son of William Hotson and his wife Matilda (nee Moses).

Arthur married Hilda Mumby of 16 White's Road, Cleethorpes, Lincs in 1906. His son James born in 1908, sadly died in infancy. 

The 1911 Census shows the family living at 10 Tynwald Street, Toxteth, Liverpool. Arthur is aged 27, born in 1884 and is a Steward on Steamships and his wife, Hilda, is aged 26, born in 1885 in Cleethorpes and they had been married for 4 years. They lived with Hilda's son John Henry  and had three children, two who survived. All the children were born in Cleethorpes. John Henry Hotson Mumby aged 6, born in 1905 is at school, Claude William, is aged 3, born in1908 and Arthur, born in 1911.

Arthur enlisted in Liverpool and was serving in the 18th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Corporal No 33019. 

From the 23^rd September 1914 he was billeted at Hooton Park Race Course and remained there until 03^rd December 1914 when they moved into the hutted accommodation at Lord Derby’s estate at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 18th Battalion alongside the other three Pals battalions left Liverpool via Prescot Station for further training at Belton Park, Grantham. They remained here until September 1915 when they reached Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain. He arrived in France on 7^th November 1915.

Arthur died of wounds on the 29th October 1916, aged 32 at the No1 Canadian General Hospital, France following the Battle of the Transloy Ridges which was part of the ongoing Somme Offensive. 

He now lies in Etaples Military, France, where his headstone bears the epitaph:

“FOR EVER WITH THE LORD”

During the First World War, the area around Etaples was the scene of immense concentrations of Commonwealth reinforcement camps and hospitals. It was remote from attack, except from aircraft, and accessible by railway from both the northern or the southern battlefields. In 1917, 100,000 troops were camped among the sand dunes and the hospitals, which included eleven general, one stationary, four Red Cross hospitals and a convalescent depot, could deal with 22,000 wounded or sick. In September 1919, ten months after the Armistice, three hospitals and the Q.M.A.A.C. convalescent depot remained.

The cemetery contains 10,771 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, the earliest dating from May 1915. 35 of these burials are unidentified. It is the largest CWGC cemetery in France, and was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

His sons were 8 and 6 years old when he died. His widow Hilda received his effects, including a War Gratuity of £4 (indicating that Arthur had served less than a year when he died) and a pension of £1-7s-6d a week for herself and three children.