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The Soldiers |
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15/312. Private Arthur Bertrand Eschle (M.M) |
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Arthur Bertrand Eschle, was the
ninth of eleven children (five of whom did not survive infancy) born on
the 12th September 1881, in Aberdare, Glamorgan, Wales to Felix
and Hannah Eschle. Arthur’s father, Felix, was born
in Rohrbach, Baden in Southwest Germany, in 1834, where his family owned a
small farm. Felix was a clockmaker in Germany. When his father (Johann)
died, in 1850. Felix left Germany with his younger sisters Dominica and
Wilhelmina. He settled in Aberdare with Dominica, where he met Hannah
Dance. They married on the 26th December 1866. Felix died in
1892, when Arthur was just 10 years old. Wilhelmina went to Plymouth,
Devon where she later married. Felix married Hannah Dance, a
native of Taffs Well near Cardiff (born 1844), on 26 December 1866. Hannah
was a jeweller. The couple set up a clock making and jewellery business in
Aberdare, which Hannah continued to run after Felix’s death in 1892. Arthur’s siblings were Leonhard
Edgar, Bernard Oswald, Gertrude Letitia, Frank Isidor and Eva Isabella. Arthur Bertrand Eschle served as a
Private Soldier during the Boer War, and by the end of it had reached the
rank of W011. At the outbreak of World War One,
Arthur promptly went to the Leeds Town hall, and enlisted, as a private
soldier into the “Leeds Pals” (apparently his Germanic ancestry
prevented him from being promoted) On the 10th August 1915,
whilst stationed at No1 camp, Ripon, Arthur married Bertha Faller at St
Dubritius Chapel in Pontypridd. Less than a year later, Private
Arthur Bertrand Eschle was killed in action, on the 1st July
1916. The first day of the “Battle of the Somme” He was just 34 years
of age. Bertha Eschle was living in
Pontypridd, at the time of his death. She “Never” re-married, and died
in 1983. A year after his death he was
posthumously awarded the “Military Medal” – Gazetted on the 28th
June 1917. He was
survived by his older brothers, Leonard, also a clockmaker, Bernard, an
ironmonger, Frank, an engine fitter, an older sister, Gertrude (later
Griffiths), and a younger sister, Eva. He is
buried in Serre Road Cemetery No. 1Pas de Calais, France (grave reference
I. A. 4.). The
inscription on Arthur’s gravestone reads: - In Memory Of Private Arthur Bertrand Eschle MM 15/312, 15th Bn., West Yorkshire Regt. (Prince Of
Wales's Own) Who Died Age 34 On Saturday 1 July 1916.
Husband Of Bertha Eschle, Of Pontypridd, Glam. Remembered With Honour |
