Arthur’s Club

[Uncle George]

Here’s an interesting memorial. Arthur’s Club, the first London Club to be owned by its members; founded in 1811 and dissolved in 1940, its memorial is now to be found in St James’s church, Piccadilly. We can see on this memorial one Lord, two baronets, one knight; five Lieutenant-Colonels, a Major, many Captains, Lieutenants. And one Private: Pte C Board of the Royal Sussex Regiment.

 

He’s something of a mystery, this Gentleman Ranker. Why would a member of a Piccadilly gentlemen’s club be serving as a private soldier? And why can’t I find a Medal Index Card for him?

 

Any help would be very appreciated.

 

EDIT: photograph in my possession.

Edited 11 November , 2019 by Uncle George

[BereniceUK]

Could he have worked there, rather than have been a member? The inscription doesn't specifically say that all those named were members.

[Terry_Reeves]

Not all members of that particular club may not have been wanted to be commissioned.

 

TR

 

 

Edited 12 November , 2019 by Terry_Reeves

[Uncle George]

11 hours ago, BereniceUK said:

Could he have worked there, rather than have been a member? 
 

8 hours ago, Terry_Reeves said:

Not all members of that particular club may not have been wanted to be commissioned.

 

Yes, good points. I didn’t think of that. But I still can’t find his MIC.

 

“ ... When the drunken comrade mutters and the great guard-lantern gutters

And the horror of our fall is written plain,

Every secret, self-revealing on the aching white-washed ceiling,

Do you wonder that we drug ourselves from pain? ... “

[tootrock]

According to CWGC there was no casualty named Board in the Royal Sussex Regiment.

Martin

[Steven Broomfield]

I'm pretty sure I posted a photo of this memorial a couple of years ago (although I'm blowed if I could find it), and the response from someone was that he was a servant at the Club rather than a member. Sadly, though, I really cannot find the thread now.

[Uncle George]

1 hour ago, tootrock said:

According to CWGC there was no casualty named Board in the Royal Sussex Regiment.

Martin

 
How odd. We can see a Private Charles Boarer of the Royal Sussex Regiment, and his MIC, but that's as near as I can find.

[Steven Broomfield]

He may well have joined the Royal Sussex and then transferred. The club knew he'd been killed and assumed it was with the Sussex so recorded him as such, despite the CWGC et al obviously getting it right.

[alf mcm]

Ancestry fold 3 pension indexes include 6 Board deaths, with Charles as a first or middle name. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/westernfrontassociation/?name=CHARLES_BOARD&count=50&name_x=1_1&priority=united-kingdom&_phtarg=pEt2096

 

Regards,

 

Alf McM

[helpjpl]

24 minutes ago, alf mcm said:

Ancestry fold 3 pension indexes include 6 Board deaths, with Charles as a first or middle name. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/westernfrontassociation/?name=CHARLES_BOARD&count=50&name_x=1_1&priority=united-kingdom&_phtarg=pEt2096

 

 

There is also 322 Pte Claude Adolphus Board 1st Bn Rifle Brigade KIA 18 September 1914. Get's a brief mention in de Ruvigny. 

 

Living in Brighton in 1911 aged 29. Unemployed Waiter.

 

JP

[Uncle George]

23 minutes ago, helpjpl said:

 

There is also 322 Pte Claude Adolphus Board 1st Bn Rifle Brigade KIA 18 September 1914. Get's a brief mention in de Ruvigny. 

 

Living in Brighton in 1911 aged 29. Unemployed Waiter.

 

JP

Thanks, yes I saw his MIC; on which there is no record of earlier service in the Royal Sussex Regiment. This is too early a death for Steven’s transfer idea, it seems to me.

[Uncle George]

1 hour ago, alf mcm said:

Ancestry fold 3 pension indexes include 6 Board deaths, with Charles as a first or middle name. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/westernfrontassociation/?name=CHARLES_BOARD&count=50&name_x=1_1&priority=united-kingdom&_phtarg=pEt2096

 

Regards,

 

Alf McM

Thank you. I’ve tried to cross-reference these with the MIC in the hope of finding mention of the Royal Sussex Regiment. But with no luck.

[Steven Broomfield]

2 hours ago, Uncle George said:

Thanks, yes I saw his MIC; on which there is no record of earlier service in the Royal Sussex Regiment. This is too early a death for Steven’s transfer idea, it seems to me.

 

But not if the Committee (it must have been a Committee) remembered his R Sussex service and simply assumed that he'd returned to his old mob.

 

EDIT: ignore that - saw the 'no service' a bit too late!

Edited 12 November , 2019 by Steven Broomfield

[BullerTurner]

If we are hypothesising in the absence of facts, I wonder if he might have served but been discharged due to ill health, without going overseas?  Subsequently then dying outwith the CWGC remit?  Possibly a search of the SWB data might be a useful exercise.  Oh and obviously deaths on the civil registers?

[Uncle George]

7 hours ago, BullerTurner said:

If we are hypothesising in the absence of facts, I wonder if he might have served but been discharged due to ill health, without going overseas?  Subsequently then dying outwith the CWGC remit?  Possibly a search of the SWB data might be a useful exercise.  Oh and obviously deaths on the civil registers?

Yes thanks, that all fits. I see on FreeBMD that one Charles Board died in Greenwich in September 1916, aged 30.

 

A friend tells me that he will be able to send me some relevant info. tomorrow.

[Michael Pegum]

On 11/11/2019 at 21:27, BereniceUK said:

Could he have worked there, rather than have been a member? The inscription doesn't specifically say that all those named were members.

 

It's very likely he was a member of staff. The Kildare Street Club in Dublin, also a 'gentlemen's club', included the billiard room waiter on their war memorial. Surprisingly, he was the first casualty to be mentioned in the Club Committee minutes, even though eight members had been killed in the first five months. They, too, made a mistake on their memorial: the South Irish Horse had privates, not troopers.

 

P.S. I see that Alexander Moore Vandeleur was a member of both clubs. Another error on the Arthur's Club memorial: Vandeleur was in the 1st* Life Guards. I researched all of those named on this memorial for a book.

 

Michael

*An error pointed out by Uncle George; he was in the 2nd Life Guards.

Edited 14 November , 2019 by Michael Pegum

[Uncle George]

57 minutes ago, Michael Pegum said:

 

It's very likely he was a member of staff. The Kildare Street Club in Dublin, also a 'gentlemen's club', included the billiard room waiter on their war memorial. Surprisingly, he was the first casualty to be mentioned in the Club Committee minutes, even though eight members had been killed in the first five months. They, too, made a mistake on their memorial: the South Irish Horse had privates, not troopers.

 

P.S. I see that Alexander Moore Vandeleur was a member of both clubs. Another error on the Arthur's Club memorial: Vandeleur was in the 1st Life Guards. I researched all of those named on this memorial for a book.

 

Michael

Thank you very much for this - most interesting. So the likelihood is, I think, and as suggested by BereniceUK, that C Board was a member of Arthur’s Club’s staff.

 

A couple of things: the officer on the Kildare Street Club memorial is Captain VandeleuP; another mistake, I think.

 

(I have looked for a MIC for A M Vandeleur, and see that he served with the 2nd Life Guards. A search for Vandeleup produces zero matches).

 

 

 

[Michael Pegum]

3 hours ago, Uncle George said:

 

Thank you very much for this - most interesting. So the likelihood is, I think, and as suggested by BereniceUK, that C Board was a member of Arthur’s Club’s staff.

 

A couple of things: the officer on the Kildare Street Club memorial is Captain VandeleuP; another mistake, I think.

 

(I have looked for a MIC for A M Vandeleur, and see that he served with the 2nd Life Guards. A search for Vandeleup produces zero matches).

 

 

 

 

 

The error was in the low-quality photograph. The memorial does, incorrectly, say "1st Life Guards", but the name is correct:

 

 

The name will ring a bell with those familiar with the attack on Arnhem in WW II. A. M. Vandeleur was the father of Lt. Col. Giles Vandeleur and uncle of Lt. Col. J.O.E. Vandeleur, of the Irish Guards Battle Group, who were in Operation Garden, the 1944 advance towards Arnhem following the airborne attack (Operation Market). 'Joe's Bridge', near Lommel, is named after 'Joe' Vandeleur

Edited 14 November , 2019 by Michael Pegum

[BereniceUK]

6 hours ago, Michael Pegum said:

 

It's very likely he was a member of staff. The Kildare Street Club in Dublin, also a 'gentlemen's club', included the billiard room waiter on their war memorial. Surprisingly, he was the first casualty to be mentioned in the Club Committee minutes, even though eight members had been killed in the first five months. They, too, made a mistake on their memorial: the South Irish Horse had privates, not troopers.

 

 

A hangover from the Boer War, and perhaps even earlier than that? Contemporary newspaper reports covering the Boer War seem to have invariably reported Imperial Yeomen as being troopers, even though private was the official Army designation (so I'm told). It could be that any private soldier who rode a horse in the army, such as Mounted Infantry units of British Army regiments, was thought by the public to be a trooper.

 

[Uncle George]

3 hours ago, Michael Pegum said:

 

The error was in the low-quality photograph ... but the name is correct:

 

Thanks for clearing that up.

 

I see that the names of the 6,800 of the Royal Sussex Regiment who fell in the First war have been recorded on the memorial in St George’s Chapel in Chichester Cathedral. I have contacted the Royal Sussex Living History Group on webmaster@royalsussex.org.uk, asking if Pte Board is listed there, or if they have any record of him.

[Steven Broomfield]

1 hour ago, BereniceUK said:

 

A hangover from the Boer War, and perhaps even earlier than that? Contemporary newspaper reports covering the Boer War seem to have invariably reported Imperial Yeomen as being troopers, even though private was the official Army designation (so I'm told). It could be that any private soldier who rode a horse in the army, such as Mounted Infantry units of British Army regiments, was thought by the public to be a trooper.

 

 

 

It's very common for Privates of cavalry and yeomanry regiments to be mis-identified as Troopers; as you say, it does seem to be the popular (mis-)conception. The term became official in 1922 but was the official designation in Household Cavalry units in the GW.

[Uncle George]

I’ve not received a reply from Royal Sussex Living History Group, but a friend has visited Chichester Cathedral on my behalf, and I’m told there is no mention of C Board on the Roll of Honour in the Royal Sussex Regiment Chapel.
 

The attached photograph is of the Roll of Honour. The nearest name on the Roll is C Boarer (see post #7.)

 

Also in Chichester, I learn, is a Memorial Park. This commemorates Chichester men only, apparently, but again, no C Board is listed. I’ve also attached a photo of this.

 

Edited 19 November , 2019 by Uncle George