Part 18: My Grandfather Arthur Swinfield (1883-1956)

Arthur Swinfield was born on 27^th March 1883 at Barossa Common in Camberley, Surrey. He was the third son but the only child of William and Elizabeth to survive to adulthood. His teenage brother, William Thomas, died in the Boer War.

He was baptised at St Michael's church, York Town, on 5th August 1883, his father then working as a groom.  

In 1891, when the census was taken, the family was living at London Road, York Town in Camberley. 

In addition to his parents, Arthur lived with his older brother William, then aged 12. He was to die in 1899 at the Battle of Glencoe, Dundee, South Africa during the Boer War.    

1901 census of Earl Shilton

Arthur also joined the army late in 1901 at a time when he had been making boots in the ancestral home in Leicestershire. Arthur joined the Leicestershire Regiment and my father believes that he was in India at some point during his service. He is now remembered on the Tigers website of ex-soldiers.   

1911 census of Winchester

By 1911, after leaving the army and returning to England, he was working as footman in the household of  Charles Matthew Griffith, a retired Major General at Maes Gwyn in Winchester, Hampshire. The General had been born at Poona, Bombay, India, and perhaps they had met on the subcontinent. 

He was then an Army reservist. No attestation and discharge records exist for him at the National Archives in WO97. 

In September 1912, he successfully applied for a job as a butler at the Royal Military College (later the Royal Military Academy), at Camberley. 

Just before that, Arthur became "betrothed" to Edith Elizabeth Worsfold on 20th July 1912. She recorded that date in her book of notable events such as family births, marriages and deaths. Edith had known her future husband for at least five years since on Boxing Day 1906 Arthur had been a witness at the marriage of her brother, Harry Sidney Worsfold, to Louisa Boyce at Bagshot church in Surrey. They did not marry for another seven years until their wedding was solemnised at St Michael's, York Town, Camberley, Surrey, on 4th August 1913. He was then 30 and was working as a waiter. 



His WWI medal card

He re-enlisted for the First World War serving with the Lincolnshire Regiment where he saw action at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle from 10th to 13th March 1915 where there were 7,000 British and 4,200 Indian casualties. Arthur was listed as one of the casualties in a list of 21st March. No records have survived to document his service in the Great War in either WO363 or WO364 at TNA.  

Sandhurst service record 

After the war, he returned to Sandhurst where he was to work until January 1925 according to his recently released employment record. For some reason, that records him as C. Swinfield and he was earning a little more than £2-10s per week after more than 10 years service there! While there, he was a member of the Rifle Club and won a spoon in one of their monthly competitions. 

At that time, the marriage finally produced issue. Their only child, Reginald Ernest, who was to become my father, was born on 11^th January 1925, almost twelve years after their wedding when my Gran was 40.





By September 1939, Arthur and Edith were living at 9 St Mary's Road, Camberley, Surrey. 

Arthur was working as a butler at the Royal Military College. The redacted member of the family would be young Reg Swinfield, then aged 14.    

In his retirement, Arthur was a keen supporter of Camberley Football Club and on Saturday afternoons before the Second World War, he would take Reg to watch them playing at their home ground of Krooner Park. During WWII, on its formation in 1940, he joined the Local Defence Volunteers (later to become the Home Guard) and served until it was disbanded in 1944. Was he Corporal Jones or Private Godfrey?

1895 map of Camberley reproduced by Alan Godfrey

In October 1946, when the RMA closed, he was presented with a certificate expressing gratitude for more than 34 years of service to those who trained there. He liked to play darts and most evenings, on his way home from work at 8pm, he would call in at the Staff Hotel for a game and a pint or two of beer.  He always cycled the two miles from his home at 9 St Mary’s Road, Camberley, to work. His bicycle had 30” wheels and a  high gearing which meant that it was  hard to pedal and he progressed very slowly!
 

He retired from the RMA in 1948 when he was 65 and did some odd jobs gardening until he became too breathless to work as a result of emphysema. He died at home after a long illness on 19th March 1956, at the age of nearly 73, and was buried in York Town churchyard.