The story of my grandfather, Arthur Ward, has been published by the Society of Genealogists in the Genealogists’ Magazine, June 2025. The article covers his service in World War I with the Northamptonshire Regiment and Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire (Sherwood Foresters) Regiment. It also includes growing up in Northampton, starting work and returning to civvy street after the war. He was a bootmaker working first at Abraham Lee’s factory in Bective Road and later at G T Hawkins in Overstone Road. He was active in his union and in the fledgling Labour Party.
Sadly, he died before I was born, so compiling his story was a challenge with few primary documents surviving. For his military service, this required parallel searching of records of men who enlisted with him, were also injured and repatriated to the UK.
For the benefit of a wider audience, an extended version of his story is published as a multi-part blog (in colour, too). In addition, there is a summary of the 35 men who enlisted with Arthur Ward at Northampton in 1915 and transferred to the Sherwood Foresters in France in 1917 and some Resources and Tips for researching your own ancestor’s WWI army service.
- Arthur Ward (1888-1948): From Northampton to the Front
- Arthur Ward (1888-1948): Gas, Retreat and Recovery
- Arthur Ward (1888-1948): A Veteran’s Life After War
- Northamptonshire Regiment and Sherwood Foresters
- Resources and Tips for searching WWI Army ancestors
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