215447 L/Sgt. Alfred Arculus British Army 2nd Btn Worcestershire Regiment from:Salter Street, Tanworth in Arden, Earlswood, Birmingham (d.26th Sep 1915.) What I know of Alfred Arculus is taken from records I have come across while researching my ancestors but I think I would have liked him. He actually volunteered for the Army Reserve as a Special Reservist on 6th March 1914, aged 18 yrs 171 days. A farm labourer, he was 5ft 4 inches tall and weighed 128lbs, not exactly a strapping lad but he was willing.
At the outbreak of war he was promoted to Lance Corporal; by the 5th October he was a Corporal and in March 1915 he became L/Sergeant. Then in June he lost his stripe, the reason, curiosity! On the 3rd April at the back of his billet at Essars two R.E officers exploded an aeroplane bomb. A group of men including Alfred watched the proceedings and after the explosion started picking up fragments. Alfred found the nose of the bomb and as the R.E officers had declared the area safe he proceeded back to his billet with his mates and the fragment. This is where his curiosity got the better of him. He started to take the nose of the bomb apart and as witnessed by others it blew up and badly injured his left hand. A court of enquiry came to the conclusion that 'having considered the evidence Alfred was wholly to blame for the accident, and he was not in performance of military duties when injured'.
A month later on the 2nd May he was pronounced fully fit and back with his mates on the 4th. On the 8th September he's again a L/Sgt. On the 26th September 1915 he was killed in action at Vermelles. From what I have now found he is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, originally buried at Barts Alley Cemetery, Vermelles (this cemetery was destroyed in later battles and the remains scattered - what was found taken to Loos and reburied). Of his effects only his identity disc remained. This was sent to his mother, Eliza. She received it in 1916.
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