Arthur Henry Everett

Arthur Henry Everett was born in Tharston in 1893. He never knew his father, a farmer also Arthur Henry, who died in March that year, but he had three older sisters and a step father, Edward Goose, who married his widowed mother Miranda. They lived in a cottage near Bridge End Farm on Church Lane, now Church Hill, Tasburgh. After leaving school at the age of 12 he started work as a farmyard labourer and at the outbreak of war he joined the 9th Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment in Norwich in September 1914. After training, they transferred to France at the beginning of September as part of the build-up of forces for the major offensive at the Battle of Loos on the 25th of that month.

The 9th Battalion formed part of the 24th Division, XI Corps which was to be used as the general reserve for the battle, five miles behind the front line. Initially stationed near St. Omer the XI Corps began its advance on the 20th, marching overnight and resting in billets by day to avoid enemy aircraft observation. Their final marching orders didn't arrive until 2am on the 25th and so they had barely reached their final position before the first attack went in at 6am. The 24th Division were tasked with taking the German's second line of defence which was thought to be lightly defended but reinforcements had arrived overnight and there were strong counterattacks along the entire front. By the 26th the British were taking heavy casualties but in the confusion of battle the order for the Guards Division to relieve the remnants of the 24th Division was delayed meaning that the Division's survivors weren't able to retire until the early hours of the 27th.

By then it was too late for Bertie Everett whose name is recorded on Panel 30 of the Loos Memorial. He had been in France for less than three weeks and by the 5th October, when the battle was over, British casualties had risen to 59,000 killed or wounded.