Private Arthur Hopley, Regimental Number 2792

This card from Arthur Hopley caught the 8.45 pm post on 29th May 1914, a Friday evening. Perhaps he was off for some training that weekend; maybe shooting at Altcar. The Museum has access to almost complete runs of The Liverpool Scottish Gazette detailing training and social activities of the 10th (Scottish) Battalion The King's (Liverpool Regiment) and this forms a fascinating social history. The message reads 'Wishing you a very happy birthday, Yours to a cinder, Arthur'

Arthur Hopley, Maidaner, May 1914 Arthur Hopley's card, 'Yours to a Cinder'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just over two months later Arthur Hopley would be pulled from the commercial world of Liverpool to be mobilised with the rest of the battalion on 4th August at the outbreak of war and by the end of that month it is likely that he would have volunteered , as did over 800 other members of The Scottish, for overseas service. Members of the Territorial Force were normally liable only for home service. Certainly, on Sunday November 1st 1914 he listed as being a 'Maidaner'. This how those members of The Liverpool Scottish who sailed in the S.S. Maidan to France at the beginning of November 1914 to join the British Expeditionary Force were known in the years to come. They were one of the first Territorial battalions to join the B.E.F. On November 3rd 1914, he was in France. Arthur Hopley survived the war.

The Last Post - 2651 Bugler Anderson H.S. The last surviving Maidaner, Harold Stuart Anderson, died at the age of 102 on 2nd November 1998 which was 84 years to the day when he had been sailing to France in 1914. He had also been present at the Battle of Hooge in June 1915. Shortly before his death he had been awarded the Legion d'Honneur by the French Republic, an award which was made to the handful of surviving veterans to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Great War. His funeral took place very fittingly at 11 am on 11th of November 1998, eighty years on to the minute when the guns ceased firing on the Western Front. Although he had not received the insignia of the Legion, it was presented to his daughter by the French Consul in March 1999.