Arthur Richard Alphey

  General Notes:

Arthur enlisted in the AIF on 16 May 1916. He was 26 years and 3 months old and a painter by occupation. He was 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighed 130 lbs. he had a fresh complexion, blue eyes and light brown hair. He had vaccination marks, scars on the back of both hands and moles on his left arm, left chest and right back. His religion was recorded as Roman Catholic.

He initially listed his father, George Alphey a resident of Deniliquin NSW, as his next of kin, but this was later changed to his new wife, May, resident in Adams St., Narrandera, NSW. Arthur listed his normal residence as Cranbourne in Victoria.

He was issued with the Service No. 2124 and assigned to the 4th Reinforcements, 59th Battalion in Castlemaine, Victoria as a Private. It appears he was given 6 days leave from 16 May to 22 May 1916 which may have been to enable him to marry. A couple of short months later he was on his way to England on board the Orsova which departed Melbourne on 1 August, arriving in Plymouth, England on 14 September, 1916. After a couple of months of further training with the 15th Training Battalion, Arthur was sent to Etaples in France, arriving there on 6 December where he joined the 5th Australian Divisional Base Depot (ADBD) .

On 24 December he was transferred to the 57th Battalion where he served in the field in France for several months before contracting an unidentified fever which saw him hospitalised for just over a month. Perhaps his time in the field had opened his eyes to the risks he faced because while recuperating, on 9 June, he wrote a Will in which he left everything to his wife, May.

He rejoined his unit on the 29 July 1917. Sadly, on 25 September 1917 Arthur was Killed in Action while serving with the 57th Battalion. It is believed that this was during the Battle of Polygon Wood, near Ypres in Belgium. He was "buried at Sheet 28NW I.18.a.7.9 Rear of Hooge Crater" according to his service file. Hooge Crater Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of the First World War located in the Ypres Salient in Belgium on the Western Front. Hooge Crater itself was formed by a giant mine explosion in 1916. As his body was never recovered, he is remembered at the Menin Gate memorial, also in Belgium. The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing is one of four British and Commonwealth memorials to the missing in the battlefield area of the Ypres Salient in Belgian Flanders.

On 17 December 1917 his wife new May received a small parcel containing his effects comprising a small wallet, a note book, photos and some cigarette cards.

Arthur was the recipient of the British War Medal No. 44161 and the Victory Medal No. 43672. Sadly, his British War Medal appears in an Auction Listing for an Auction held in Sydney in July 2012.

Arthur married Margaret May Sullivan, daughter of William John O'Sullivan and Catherine Mary Smith, in 1916 in Narrandera,,New South Wales,Australia. (Margaret May Sullivan was born on 27 Sep 1891 in Mt Crystal nr, Landervale, , New South Wales, Australia.)