ASHES ON BATTLEFIELD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 145, 22 June 1931, Page 8

ASHES ON BATTLEFIELD

WIDOW’S MOURNFUL MISSION. WEDDING DAY PROMISE. Iu fulfilment of a wedding-day promise, Airs. Arnold, of Little Bromwich, Birmingham, recently went out to the Somme Battlefield and scattered in High Wood the ashes of her husband, who, 15 years ago, fought there with the 14th Warwickshire Regiment. In some of the fiercest fighting on the Somme, Private Percy G. Arnold stopped to aid a fallen comrade. As he did so a bullet pierced his lung, lie remained on the battlefield for a few hours, and was then taken prisoner by the Germans. After some time in hospital he was sent to Switzerland incapacitated for further fighting.

When Air Arnold married some time* after the war, he made his wife promise that, should ho die before her, she would take his ashes to High Wood and scatter them on the ground where so many of his comrades foil. Air Arnold died last January from lung trouble due to his war wounds. Bis widow, herself a war nurse, who was decorated for her services, was unable, because of illness, to make the journey immediately.

Airs Arnold travelled alone to Albert, the French town adopted by Birmingham, with the urn containing the ashes, and then motored to High Wood. “The officer who escorted nu« from Albert remained bareheaded by the car while I entered the wood ana scattered the ashes,” related Atrs Arnold on her return.

“I saw the rusty barbed wire, which probably my husband helped to cut, and T scattered the ashes where 1 thought his comrades fell. The sun was shining while I was in the wood, and I think the ceremony was carried out just in the manner my husband requested. The French people were very kind to me on the journey. I returned to Albert, and then caught the first train back.”