Private Arthur Flannigan

Private Arthur Flannigan, 1st/7th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in Belgium by a shrapnel shell on 16th June 1915 aged 20 and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium. He was the son of Mr George and Mrs Mary Flannigan of 88 High Street, Berwick upon Tweed. On that date the Battalion were holding front line trenches near Hooge and were being held in readiness for an attack from Zouave Wood. During this time they were heavily shelled by enemy artillery and suffered numerous casualties. The photograph shows the Memorial raised to the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part until February 1918 when it was transferred to the 42nd ( East Lancashire ) Division as a Pioneer Battalion. It was erected near the village of Wieltje in the Ypres Salient where the Division had fought its first action on 26th April 1915 only days after landing on the Continent.