| Abstract | WW2 Memorial Profiles for East Mersea
ARTHUR BERNARD FARTHING
Private 14631482
6th Bn., Durham Light Infantry
Born 10 October 1923
Attended East Mersea School and West Mersea School
Died 11 July 1944 age 20.
Buried Hottot-les-Bagues War Cemetery, Calvados, France
Commemorated on East Mersea War Memorial and West Mersea War Memorial
Son of Walter Henry and Mabel Lily Farthing, near The Hall, East Mersea. Attended East Mersea School. Worked at East Hall Farm. When he joined up 17 June 1943 he was listed as a Tractor Driver.
On D-Day 6th June 1944, Arthur was in the 6th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry. With the 8th and 9th Battalions, they landed on Gold Beach in Normandy.
Arthur was killed by German mortar fire (moaning minnies) at Lingevres near Caen. Brother George R.E.M.E attached to 2nd Battalion, Northants Yeomanry, 11th Armed Division discovered Arthur's Battalion was nearby and visited to try and find him. Met the padre who advised his brother was not there and believed that he may have been killed in the last couple of days. George 'borrowed' a motorcycle to search for his brother and came upon his and other bodies in a field. Hiding his helmet in a nearby oak tree, he buried his brother in a temporary grave against a hedge.
East Mersea School 1926
Front row George Farthing is 2nd from right and Arthur Farthing 5th from right
In 2003 George Farthing was interviewed by Paul Jasper for Colchester Recalled, and described finding his brother:
My youngest brother Arthur was killed in Normandy, and I buried him with these, with my hands. I was in Normandy, I was with the
6th Armoured Division, when we took Caen nearly all our tank crews were killed. As we were advancing, the tanks pulled back,
and somebody said to me "The Durham Light Infantry is in the next field". So, I crept in the hedge, and I saw his padre.
I asked him about my brother and he said "Yes, they went up last night, and they are gradually coming back". The infantry
used to hold the line at night - the tanks could not fight in the dark. He said "come back tomorrow night".
I went back next night and he told me my brother was killed. He gave me the map reference.
"I went back, and we had a couple of motorbikes, spare ones about, I used to ride a motorbike quite a lot. So I jumped on this motorbike and I went about a quarter or half mile up, and I hunted round this battlefield, and I looked in this field, it was only a small field, there were ten or a dozen bodies lay there, scattered out there, they hadn't been buried, and I couldn't find him. Coming away, I saw three more, with little sticks made into crosses, near a ditch. One of them was my young brother. His tin hat was like a pepper pot, shrapnel had all gone through it and he was cut to pieces. He never suffered, he never suffered at all, he just lay there, where he dropped. I put that tin hat in a poplar tree, where the branches had been cut off. I shined up that, I was fit then, different to what I am now. And I put his hat in the tree, so when I came back, I would know where it is.
I went back to my Unit, they said, you are on a charge, taking a motorbike. I thought, I couldn't care less. Our officer was Dave Arckle, a Captain,
I told him. He said, there won't be no charge. Take a motorbike, and take a spade, and bury your brother.
This was 12th.
I didn't dig a hole, just chucked a little earth, keep the rooks and birds away - and that's how I came to bury my brother.
"I didn't tell anybody at the time, I just went back to my unit. I didn't even look in my brother's pockets to find anything; he didn't suffer because he was cut to pieces. Terrible. It was a moaning minnie. A mortar. They were moaning when they were coming."
"He was given a proper burial later. He is in a lovely little cemetery now. I went over 50 years afterwards".
[ The interview with George Farthing is available in Mersea Museum, ID AA011311 ]
Arthur Bernard Farthing's body was later removed from the battlefield and buried in the Hottot-Les-Bagues War Cemetery, Calvados, France. He name is inscribed on the East Mersea War Memorial inside the church. He is the only East Mersea casualty of the Second World War.
Essex County Standard - 11th August, 1944
Mr & Mrs Henry Farthing of the Hall Farm, Church Lane, East Mersea are deeply grateful for the many letters and expressions of sympathy received in the loss of their dearly loved son, Arthur Bernard, killed on active service July 11, 1944
With thanks to:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Roger Bullen
Paul Jasper - Colchester Recalled
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