Ploegsteert Memorial
Ploegsteert Memorial 2016
DLI Memorial Book
Pauline Priano has submitted the following:-
Arthur William Teader was born 1883 in Sleetburn, County Durham, he married Martha Annie Darnell born 1883, a native of Shincliffe, September 1906 in the registration district of Durham. By 1911 they were living at 25 Raby Terrace, Chilton, Ferryhill, Arthur William was employed as a coal hewer at the local colliery and they had a daughter, Mary Jane, born March 27th 1907.
Arthur William Teader enlisted and was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, Durham Light Infantry as Private 7944. The battalion was attached to the 18th Brigade, 6th Division which reached France, September 10th 1914, landing at St. Nazare as part of the British Expeditionary Force. The German Army’s advance had been halted on the Marne and pushed back to beyond the Ainse. The 6th division was dispersed amongst the units of the B.E.F. with the 2nd Battalion the penultimate on the right of the front line holding the ridge of the Chemin des Dames. On September 20th 1914 the Germans attacked but were held, in this introduction to the war the battalion lost in one day as many men as the 1st Battalion lost in the whole of the Boer War. Rejoining the rest of the Division in early October the 2nd Battalion fought at the Battle of Armentieres. By the end of October, it was withdrawn from the front having lost over 80% of its original force, counting dead and wounded. The remaining force were deployed in Belgium away from the main battle zone in day to day trench warfare
Private 7944 Arthur William Teader was killed in action November 23rd 1914 and has no known grave. His sacrifice is recorded D. L. I. panel 8 and 9 on the Ploegsteert Memorial which lies within Berks Cemetery Extension, 12.5 kilometres south of Ypres, Belgium, commemorating more than 11,000 British and South African servicemen who died in the sector. He was 31 years old.
His widow Martha Annie would have received a pension for herself and daughter Mary Jane along with his awards of the 1914 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. Martha Annie Teader died in Sedgefield, December 1919 leaving their daughter an orphan at the age of 12. Mary Jane married William S. Mawson, March 1935 in Lanchester, she died March 1996 in Sunderland.
In God’s safe keeping. Rest In Peace.
Arthur William Teador is remembered at Chilton on C107.01, C107.04 and C107.12 and as Arthur William Teader at Chilton on C107.08, C107.09
