ARTHUR EDWARD GAFFER
Born: 1883, Cotton, Suffolk.
Died: 18th April 1915; age 32; KiA.
Residence: Ipswich.
Enlistment Location: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
Date of Entry Therein: 24th March 1915 – France.
Rank: Private; Service Number: 5961
Regiment: Suffolk Regiment, 1st Battalion.
Medals Awarded: Victory, British War & 1915 Star.
The body was exhumed from grave number 36, a German grave not marked with a cross, and identified by the German Burial List No. 928 and a Disc (which was sent to base) and reburied at Bedford House Cemetery. A cross was erected to mark the grave on the 26th February 1923.
Grave Reference:
Enclosure No. 4 XL. AA.45.
Leper,
West-Vlaanderen,
Belgium.
CENSUS
1891 Cotton, Suffolk
Arthur was 7 years old and living with his widowed mother & siblings
Eliza Gaffer (nee Mutimer), 36, a Charwoman; born Mendlesham, Suffolk.
William Gaffer, 15, an Agricultural Labourer, born Cotton.
George Gaffer, 13, an Agricultural labourer, born Cotton.
Jane Gaffer, 10, born Cotton.
John Gaffer, 1, born Cotton.
1901 Cotton, Suffolk.
Arthur was 18 years old, a Porter at a Corn Merchants and living with his mother & brothers
Eliza, 46, a Charwoman.
John, 11.
Frederick Gaffer, 6, born Cotton.
1911 65, Commercial Road, Ipswich.
Arthur was 27 and a Carman for a Contractor. He was a boarder at the home of James Wright.
Arthur’s father was John Gaffer, a Farm Labourer born in Cotton in 1853. He died in 1886 when Arthur was 3 years old.
In 1901, Arthur’s mother Eliza remarried to John Last, a Farm Labourer.
In 1914, Arthur Edward Gaffer married Minnie Upson, born April 1893, Little Bealings, Suffolk – daughter of Frederick Upson, a horseman on a farm and Mary Ann Upson (nee Moyes).
They had 1 daughter:
Rosa Evelyn Gaffer, born January 1915, Ipswich.
Arthur also became father to Minnie’s daughter: Annie Beatrice Upson, born Boxing Day, 1912, Little Bealings, Suffolk.
Soldiers’ Effects to Minnie Burton – widow.
Arthur is also remembered on the war memorial at St. Margaret’s Church, Ipswich.
Suffolk Regiment, 1st Battalion:
Suffolk Regiment Battalion movements
Friends of The Suffolk Regiment
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