William Arthur Coward was born in the autumn of 1878 in Gillingham, Dorset. The youngest of three children, his parents were Arthur and Sarah Coward. Arthur died around the time his son was born, and, while he was baptised William, he was known by Arthur from there on in.
Sarah was left to being up her children alone and, by the time of the 1891 census, she had taken work as a laundry woman. The family were living on Gas House Lane, and Arthur’s older brother Hubert, or Bertie, had finished school and was working as an errand boy.
When he had completed his education, Arthur took a job as an ostler for a local inn, but wanted a reliable career and, on 30th October 1897, he enlisted in the army. Joining the Dorsetshire Regiment as a Private, his service papers show the young man he was becoming. His medical record notes that, at 19 years of age, he was a little under 5ft 7ins (1.7m) tall, and weighed 127lbs (57.6kg). He had dark brown hair, brown eyes and a sallow complexion. He was also found to have a scar on the left side of his neck, and slight varicose veins.
Assigned to the 2nd Battalion, Arthur spent the first few months training on home soil. In February 1898, however, his unit was sent to the Mediterranean and, that December, he transferred to the 3rd Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers. Over the next three years, Private Coward was based in Malta and Crete, but things were to go awry.
Bertie had passed away in the spring of 1899 and, on 25th February 1901, Arthur was imprisoned for an unrecorded felony. Tried ten days later, he was convicted of the offence, and imprisoned for three months. On his release, on 12th June, he was formally discharged from the army, and sent back to Britain.
By the time of the 1911 census, Arthur was back home. Taking up his former job as a ostler, he is recorded as living in a four-roomed house on Cemetery Road, Gillingham, with his mother. His older sister, Emily, was also living at home, the census noting that she had been an imbecile since birth.
When war broke out in the summer of 1914, Arthur would be called upon to play his part as part of Kitchener’s Army. He joined the Army Ordnance Corps on 14th April 1916, his papers suggesting little change in stature or looks, bit noted that he now suffered from eczema.
Private Coward survived the war, but in the winter of 1918, he fell ill with influenza, and this became bronchial pneumonia. His illness led to a medical discharge from the army on 15th March 1919.
At this point, Arthur’s trail goes cold. He returned home, but his health appears to have hampered him. He passed away on 24th October 1919 in Shaftesbury, Dorset. He was 41 years of age.
The body of William Arthur Coward was laid to rest in Gillingham Cemetery, just a short walk from where his mother and sister were living.
Sarah had now lost her husband and two sons and, in her early 70s, she was looking after her disabled daughter. The 1921 census found them still living on Cemetery Road, where Sarah was undertaking home duties, Emily being unable to work. She outlived her youngest child by a decade, her daughter dying just five months later, in May 1930.
Death and Service 