PATERSON, ARTHUR STANLEY 
Lieutenant
Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry 8th Bn.
Died
2-October-1918 aged 29
Son of Arthur and Kate Paterson of
Banstead, Surrey.
Arthur Stanley Paterson married Ethel E
Harris in 1910 and this was registered at Falmouth
in Cornwall.
In 1911 the family lived at 5 Biggindale Road, Streatham. Arthur Stanley Paterson, then aged 22, was
born in Hornsey, Middlesex, and his birth was registered in the
2nd Qtr of 1889 at Edmonton. In 1911 he was an Assistant
Schoolmaster. His wife, Ethel
Elizabeth (nee Harris), was also aged 22, and was born in
Falmouth, Cornwall. (She was living in
Budock, Cornwall in 1901 census ).
Arthur and Ethel had
no children in 1911 and they lived with Arthur's parents, Arthur William Paterson, 67, Born Hadley,
Mddx, living on private means, and his wife Kate Helena Gibbs Paterson,
60, born Enfield., and four more of their children aged 19 to
30.
Arthur and Ethel had three children over the
following years:
Robert N Paterson 1912 Truro
Olive E
Paterson 1913 Truro
Mary B
Paterson 1915 Truro
They moved back to
Cornwall (8, Beach Rd., Newquay) where Arthur became an Assistant
Master at Cathedral School, Truro. WWI intervened and like many
masters at the school, Arthur joined the army serving with the Duke
of Cornwall's Light Infantry.
The 8th (Service) Battalion of
the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry were formed at Bodmin in
September 1914, and attached to 79th Brigade in 26th Division. It
moved to Codford and was in billets in Bath in November 1914. It then
moved to Sutton Veny in May 1915 and eventually landed at Boulogne on 22
September 1915. On 13 November 1915 the Battalion sailed from Marseilles
for the port of Salonika in Greece.
The troops were sent to provide
military assistance to the Serbs who had recently been attacked by
combined German, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian armies. The intervention
came too late to save Serbia, and after a brief winter campaign in severe
weather conditions on the Serbian frontier, the Anglo-French forces found
themselves back at Salonika.
After preparing the port of Salonika for defence, the troops moved up
country. During 1916, further Allied contingents of Serbian, Italian and
Russian troops arrived and offensive operations began. These culminated in the fall of Monastir to
Franco-Serb forces during November. There was a second
offensive during the spring of 1917, the British part of which was the
First Battle of Doiran (24-25 April and 8-9 May 1917). It made
little impression on the Bulgarian defences. The front line remained more
or less static until September 1918, when a third offensive was launched.
This time, the British attacked at Doiran for a second time (18-19
September 1918). With a breakthrough by Serbian forces west of the river
Vardar, the Bulgarian army was forced into a general retreat. The campaign
concluded with the surrender of Bulgaria on 30 September
1918.
Lt.
Arthur Stanley Patersony died just two days later. The
Edward Alleyn Club magazine shows : 'died of
wounds at Salonika. He was wounded and taken prisoner by the Bulgars at
Doiran. When the Bulgar retreat became a rout, he was abandoned and
suffered greatly. His last hours were comforted by the kind attentions and
ministrations of another Old Boy, the Rev EC Hudson, CF, who also had the
sad satisfaction of burying him at Karasuli Military
Cemetery.'
In 1922 the Alleyn's School organ
was installed as a memorial to the war dead and the Honours Boards were
unveiled in the Great Hall under the School organ
balcony.
Unusually, the cemetery at Polikastron does not have the
normal CWGC white Portland stone headstones, but it has a stone plaque for
each man.
Arthur's plaque bears a message from his wife,
children and mother and father:
'Only good-night
beloved'. 
Grave Reference:
D. 838.
KARASOULI MILITARY CEMETERY
Polikastron
Greece
Sources :
Commonwealth War
Graves Commission
Christine Kent and Ba.r
Genealogy and census data
Edward Alleyn Magazine details from
www.edwardalleynclub
Salonika Campaign details from The Salonika campaign Society
Portrait photo courtesy of Susannah Schofield of Alleyn's
School
Plaque photo adapted from a TWGPP photograph.
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