Arthur Hope Stratford

Rank:

Lieutenant

Unit at enlistment:

1st Bedfordshire Regiment

Force:

B.E.F.

Volunteered or conscripted:

Volunteered

Survived the war:

Yes

Wounded:

Yes

Cemetery:

Cremated, Toronto, Ontario - No Known Cemetery

Commemorated at:

Grace Anglican Church, Victoria Public School Honour Roll

Birth country:

Canada

Birth county:

Brant

Birth city:

Brantford, Ontario

Address at enlistment:

Brantford, Ontario

Next of kin address:

Brantford, Ontario, Idlewyld

Trade or calling:

Student

Employer:

Royal Military College

Religious denominations:

Church of England

Marital status:

Single

Age at enlistment:

Image gallery:

Letters and documents

26 December 1914

My Darling Mayd

…Well Mayd, I spent Christmas eve and Christmas day in the trenches. We were relieved last night. It was very funny in the trenches yesterday, there was hardly a shot fired. About noon one of the Germans, they can all speak English, shouted over "Merry Christmas." Of course we shouted back "Merry Christmas." "Come over here" one of them called. "You come over here" we replied. "We'll come half way if you come the other half" relied the German. So a couple of our men stood up in the trench and the Germans did the same. Pretty soon we were scrambling over our trenches towards one another, without rifles of course, and we met half way. Both sides were a little shy at first but we soon warmed up and shook hands and laughed and joked. Soon one of them said "you sing us a song and we'll sing you one." So we gave them "Tipperary" which they enjoyed very much. They sang us a couple of songs, but I don't know what they were but they sounded all right ... The men had a great time with the Germans and all were mighty sorry when dusk began to fall and we thought it time to get back to our lines ...

We had a great fire in our trenches and we spent the remainder of the evening singing until we were relieved. The Germans told us they were fed up with the war and would be mighty glad when it was over…

Write, my love, my rose of the world.

Your loving Brother,
Arthur Stratford

BX April 6, 1915

How Lieut. Stratford Was Injured At The Front – Brantford Officer Was Riding on Motor Ambulance When German Bullet Caught Him – Is Now in the Hospital But His Injury is Not Serious

Lieutenant Arthur Stratford of Brantford, a graduate of the Royal Military College, Kingston, who secured a commission in the Bedfordshire Regiment at the outbreak of the war and is now in the hospital suffering from a wound, writing to his brother in Toronto, under date of March 12, says:

March 12, 1915

I was hit while in an ambulance. I had caught a chill the night before while in the trenches. The doctor got hold of me, and as I had a temperature of 102 he thought I had best go down into Ypres for a rest. It is safe to say that this is one of the warmest corners on the line. It is also a bad corner for snipers, who hide up in the woods and shoot down the road at night. They may fire only a couple of shots at night, but they wait until they hear a lot of people on the road and then they let drive. It was one of these men who got me; I was sitting up in the front seat with the driver of the motor ambulance. All lights were off and we had muffled engines.

Just a minute before we pulled out, a sniper took a shot at us. The bullet came through the ambulance, back of the front seat and hit me in the back. I thought at first it had only bruised me, but they seem to think the bullet has gone in. It is not a bit serious for the shot had come quite a way and was good and steady making a clean wound. The doctor says I will be on my feet again in a couple of weeks. It was rather lucky that the bullet did not get me in the spine.

Continuing his letter on March 16, Lieut. Stratford says:

I have been four days on the road now, not all travelling, but a good part of it. It has been a pretty slow journey, a lot of it in motor ambulances. I came down to Boulogne from Hazelbrooke in a stretcher slung in a hospital train. This stretcher has springs on each end of it and was very comfortable. I got to Boulogne and they kicked me off the stretcher and told me I had to go down to Havre sitting up. You would be surprised to see the hole in me. It is just about the size of an eighth of an inch drill hole. I was hit on March 11. It is now March 16 and I have another day's journey ahead of me, before I get to Havre.

BX March 17, 1915

Brantford Officer is Wounded in the Leg – Not Very Seriously Injured – Lieutenant Arthur Stratford Was Leading His Men When Injured – No Details Have Been Received – Was With English Regiment

Lieut. Arthur Stratford, son of Mrs. Joseph Stratford, who has been at the front for some three months, has received his first wound, while leading his men of the Bedfordshire Regiment in the fighting against the Germans.

Mrs. Stratford received a cablegram yesterday from her sister, Mrs. J.K. Osborne, who is now residing at Bournemouth, England, stating that Lieut. Stratford was slightly wounded in the leg. This was all the information conveyed, but it is felt by friends here that the injuries are not serious. As he has been at the front for three months and had not previously been wounded, though he had a number of narrow escapes, it is felt that he has been very fortunate.

He was a senior cadet at the Royal Military College, Kingston, at the time that war broke out, and was given a commission with the Bedfordshires. Lieutenant Arthur Bishop was another cadet who went with Lieut. Stratford to the Old Land to join his regiment.

BX September 19, 1914

Lieutenant Arthur Leonard Bishop and Lieutenant Arthur Hope Stratford Waiting for Orders

Lieutenant Arthur Bishop, a Royal Military College Cadet, who will receive an Imperial commission and Lieutenant Arthur Stratford, who also will receive a commission under the same circumstances, are awaiting receipt of these commissions and orders to report to their regiment in the old land. There is a likelihood of Lieut. Bishop leaving on Monday for the Old Land, receiving his instructions there.

BX August 31, 1972

STRATFORD, Arthur Hope (Capt.) – Kings African Rifles and Royal Field Artillery, at Toronto on Saturday, August 26, 1972. Beloved husband of the late Nora Sullivan. Dear father of Mrs. Roger Simon and brother of Miss Mayden Stratford. Funeral service at the Toronto Crematorium on Tuesday, August 29.