Two WWI trench maps consisting of Ploegsteert Edition 5D 18....

Hammer

£70

Two WWI trench maps consisting of Ploegsteert Edition 5D 18.07.18 and 1916 dated; France Sheet 36B N.E. Edition 7, pencil signed at head "XI Chester[?] A. Taylor", together with an earlier OS England and Wales map sheet 148, signed in pen & ink at head "A. Taylor "C" Coy". Arthur Taylor (1898-1914), Lieutenant 4th Bn. attd. 11th Bn. Cheshire Regiment, died on Wednesday 10th April 1918, and is commemorated at the Ploegsteert Memorial, Comines-Warneton, Hainaut, Belgium.

Arthur Taylor was born in Macclesfield and won a County Scholarship to the Modern School (Macclesfield Grammar School) in 1909. He was academically gifted, being School Captain in what should have been his last year, 1915-16, and had secured a Scholarship at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, but did not take his place at Cambridge, as he, and the other prefects, were conscripted in 1916. Commissioned into the 4th Cheshires, he was attached into the 13th Battalion following its heavy losses at Passchendaele. In February 1918 this battalion merged with the 11th and Arthur was transferred as Acting Lieutenant, just before the German spring offensive of March and April 1918. During this offensive the 11th were swept back by the Germans and suffered heavy losses. On the 8th of April they took up station in the line south of Ploegsteert wood, before a heavy German bombardment followed by an assault from the Germans on the 10th. Forced to shelter when virtually surrounded in the remains of the wood, after some resistance they were forced to withdraw on the 12th, when they did 662 men and 18 officers were casualties, 17 of them reported killed. Arthur's exact fate is not clear, he was reported as a P.O.W. in Germany, however, he was not seen again, it is possible he died or was killed after being taken prisoner on the battlefield by German stormtroopers (3)