Probert, AJ

2nd Lieutenant Arthur James Probert

Arthur was born on September 14^th 1893, the eldest of four children, of whom he was the only boy, born to financial journalist James Probert and his wife, Louisa. He spent seven years at Sutton High School for Boys, between 1901 and the end of 1908, before, in 1909, starting at the College, where he was to spend just over a year. Having left in April 1910 he took up employment with the Phoenix Assurance Company, based in the City of London.

At the start of the war Arthur was in camp with the Artists Rifles and went over to France with the unit in October 1914. The following summer he returned to England to take up a commission in the Northumberland Fusiliers, also known as the “Fighting Fifth”, and was assigned to the 1^st Battalion. Not long afterwards he returned to the front where he spent almost a year before spending much of the second half of 1916 back in England serving as a Lewis Gun Officer. In January 1917 he was reassigned to the 25^th Battalion of his regiment, with whom he returned once more to the front. That Easter Monday, April 9^th, he was killed whilst leading his men in an attack on the German lines near Roclincourt, a few miles north of Arras.