Skerman, Arthur

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Albert Skerman

Jayden Chikaviro

Arthur was the second son of Alfred William and Eliza (nee Barton) Skerman, born at Ashwell, Hertfordshire at about the end of 1888. He was a pupil at the Merchant Taylors School in Ashwell.

Arthur enlisted on the 6 March 1916 at Woolwich, London and joined the Royal Field Artillery, Regimental Number 123664.  He embarked for the Ashar, Iraq on the Middle Eastern Front, on 19 October 1916 and saw active service in the Siege of Kut Al Amara where he contracted dysentery and spent three months in hospital recovering.  He then returned to the field with the 60^th Battery at Makina Masus near Basrah.  Arthur transferred through a number of Battalions ending up in Baghdad from where he was demobbed in March 1919.  Arthur survived the War.

Arthur was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

He is commemorated on the St Mary’s Church Ashwell Roll of Honour.

The 1911 census shows him a builder’s labourer living in Drayton Park, Holloway, London.

Arthur married Dorothy Evelyn Picking at Ashwell, Hertfordshire on 9 November 1929.  They had two sons, Robert Arthur born on 10 May 1932 and Rupert Samuel born on 7 July 1934. They lived in Stotfold, Bedfordshire from about 1935.

Arthur died at Stotfold in December 1960.

Arthur’s brothers Herbert, William and Alfred all served in the War and survived.