Gunner Arthur Leonard Hughes
Arthur Leonard Hughes LTT1-GBZ was born on 2nd November 1909 in Mold, Flintshire to Dorothy Redfern and William Hughes, a travelling salesman. His early years were spent growing up in the small village of Penyffordd, Flint but by the time the 1921 census was taken, the family had moved to 70 Nicander Road in Liverpool.
Arthur trained and became a school master and we can see from the Register for England and Wales 1939 that he was evacuated to Halsall at the beginning of September of that year when the threat of war was imminent. When the 1939 Register for England and Wales was taken on 29th September, he was living with Mr. John Wilson MJPN-7XQ, a market gardener on Summerwood Lane, Halsall. His future wife and colleague at that time was Margaret Forrester LTT1-2PB. She was also a school teacher and had been evacuated with the other teachers and children from South Liverpool schools. She also hailed from Liverpool but in 1939 she was living with Bertha GSLR-QQ7 and Bill Gradwell LTJW-DKM, a wheelwright at number 70 Summerwood Lane – a semi-detached bungalow, recently built by the Gradwell family.
Halsall “old school” later known as St Cuthbert’s Hall was the village school from 1861 to 1907. Previously Halsall scholars had been taught in the “Grammar School” annexe in the church. So when all the evacuated children arrived in Halsall in 1939, the old school was put back into use as a school again.
As evacuated teachers, Arthur and Margaret would have supported and taught the evacuees who came to Halsall School in 1939. It must have been quite something to move from a city like Liverpool to a rural community such as Halsall and deal with the upheaval of war and the welfare of young children. They would have taught their pupils at both the school on New Street and in St. Cuthbert’s Hall, Summerwood Lane. This situation was referred to by headmaster, Mr. Battersby in his school Log Book. The dining room, garden and school hall were also used to accommodate the existing pupils and the influx of evacuated school children and their teachers from
Liverpool.
By 1941 the couple had returned to Liverpool and were married in September of that year. Their daughter was born on 27th November 1942. Arthur, however, had been called up to serve his country. He was a gunner in the 27th Field Regiment of the Royal Artillery, fighting in Burma.
He lost his life on 21st March 1944 and is buried at Taukkyan War Cemetery, Htauk Kyant, Kale District, Sagaing Region, Myanmar. His widow, Margaret, to whom he had been married for not even 3 years was left with their little girl. Margaret never re-married.
