247076 Capt. Arthur Bracton Bagley MC.British Army 8th Btn. Royal Dublin Fusiliers (d.29th October 1918) Arthur Bagley was born 6th of March 1891 in Rangoon, Burma. The 1901 census shows he was a boarder at Stoneygates School in Leicester. On 26th October 1910 he was commissioned as Second Lieutenant (on probation) with the 3rd Battalion The Royal Dublin Fusiliers from the Cambridge University contingent Officers Training Corps. The 1911 census shows him based at Tournay Barracks, Marlborough at Aldershot.
On 2 October 1914 he was awarded an aviator's certificate by the Royal Aero Club following a flight in a Maurice Farman biplane at the Central School of Flying at Upavon Airfield. In 1915 he married Kathleen Georgina Nelson Fernslade-Speed.
On 17 April 1917, having been promoted to Captain he was awarded the Military Cross, the citation reads, His Majesty the King has been graciously pleased to award the Military Cross in recognition of conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in the Field. He forced his way through uncut wire into the trench and killed two of the enemy. Later, finding his company could not get through the wire, he returned and organised bomb-throwing parties while the wire was being cut.
He was serving with the 2nd Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers attached to the 8th Battalion when he died of his wounds on 29 October 1918 aged 27 years. He is buried in Mont Huon Military Cemetery, Le Treport, France and is remembered on the War Memorial, St Mary's Church, Acton, London.
Probate records shows that at the time of his death his widow Kathleen was living at The Paveys, Langton Green, Kent and his address was given as 7 Upper Mount Street Dublin. It is not sure why he is commemorated on the Acton War Memorial but the 1911 census shows an Ann Bagley, aged 54 and unmarried, living at 56 Maldon Road from her age she may have been his aunt.
|