Arthur Philip Hamilton Trueman

Arthur Phillip Hamilton Trueman was born at Oakwell House, Blean the third son of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Hamilton Trueman JP OKS, East Kent Regiment (The Buffs), and Dorethea Magdalena (née Fitzgerald) of Oakwell-in-the-Blean, Canterbury. On the 10th of July 1917 he announced his engagement to Violet Victoria Bewes in the Times. She was the youngest daughter of Charles Bewes of Gnaton Hall, Yealmpton, Devon. They lived at Newton Ferriers in Devon. They were married on 19th September 1917. He died of influenza and pneumonia at the Swan Hotel, Mansfield in Nottinghamshire on the 26th of November 1918, the same day as his wife who was 21. They were buried together on the 29th of November 1918. Arthur's effects of £4858/14s/11d were left to his brother James Fitgerald Hamilton Trueman (Probate, London 4/3/1919).

He attended the Junior King's School Canterbury from September 1892 to 1893. He played cricket for the Army, for his regiment and for the Staff College. On the 26th of August 1914, he played in a three day match for Ireland against Cambridge University at Cork.

He was commissioned into the 3rd Battalion (East Kent Militia) Buffs on the 14th of February 1899 and as a regular army officer on the 26th of September 1900. He was seconded for service with the Indian Staff Corps in December 1901, promoted to lieutenant on the 12th of December 1903 and to captain on the 2nd of March 1912. On the 22nd of November 1912, he was appointed a company officer at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. At the outbreak of war he was in the 1st Battalion attached to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was promoted to major on the 1st of September 1915 and went to France where he took command of the 8th Battalion on the 7th of October 1915, being promoted to temporary colonel the same day to replace Colonel F.C. Romer who had been killed on the 26th of September at the Battle of Loos where the battalion had lost 24 officers and 610 men attacking Hulluch. In early February 1916 he was admitted to hospital suffering from shell shock. He re-joined the battalion, with a draft of one hundred and thirty men, on the 29th of May 1916. He was an instructor for a time at the Royal Military College Sandhurst following which he was appointed to form and command a cadet battalion in Devon on the 26th of February 1917 with which he remained until the end of the war. He was awarded the OBE which was announced in the London Gazette of the 10th of July 1918. He died of influenza at the Swan Hotel, Mansfield and is buried at Mansfield Cemetery. (Above military information is courtesy of the Kings College Canterbury website)

His brother, Captain Charles Fitzgerald Hamilton Trueman (OKS) 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment , was killed in action on the 26th of August 1914. His brother in law Charles Thomas Anstis Bewes, former Captain, Devonshire Regiment, died of pneumonia in a Plymouth Nursing Home on 9th February 1922. Aged 35. Western Morning News, 30th November 1918: “LT.-COL. AND MRS. TRUEMAN. “FUNERAL AT MANSFIELD. “The deaths of Lt.-Col. Arthur Philip Hamilton Trueman, O.B.E., and his wife, which occurred at the Swan Hotel, Mansfield, Notts, from pneumonia, cast a gloom over the town and camp. Lt.-Col. Trueman recently arrived at Clipstone from Membland, where he was commander of Officers’ Cadet Battn., to take command of the Nottinghamshire camp of the Northumberland Fusiliers. “At the interment yesterday [29th November 1918] full military honours were accorded the deceased. Many officers and the whole battalion of Fusiliers followed the remains, and the battalion also provided the firing party of 300 [?] men. The chief mourners were Miss Trueman, Mr. J. Trueman (brother and sister), Mr. Charles Bewes (Gnaton Hall, Yealmpton), Com. R. King, D.S.O., R.N., Col. Bertram Soltau, C.M.G., and Maj. Hardy (representing the O.T.C. at Membland). Father Prince, Roman Catholic priest at Mansfield, officiated at the graveside. “Mrs. Trueman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bewes, was buried in the afternoon, the military authorities being represented by officers from Clipstone Camp. Article courtesy of Jim Grundy and his facebook pages Small Town Great War Hucknall 1914-1918 Research by Peter Gillings