Arthur Frederick Mount: His Life and Legacy

Corporal Arthur Frederick Mount, 43609, Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), born Cheriton, Kent, 1898, formerly of the 2nd Kent Cyclist Battalion, was killed in action on 21 March 1918 during the German Spring Offensive and is commemorated on Special Memorial 48, St Souplet British Cemetery, France.

Arthur Frederick Mount: A Detailed Biography

Corporal Arthur Frederick Mount, no. 43609, Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), was a Cheriton‑born soldier who originally enlisted in the 2nd Kent Cyclist Battalion and was later transferred to the Machine Gun Corps, being killed in action on 21 March 1918 during the opening day of the German Spring Offensive. [1][2][3] He is commemorated on a special memorial in St Souplet British Cemetery, France (Memorial 48), as his original wartime grave was later lost. [1][2]

Early Life and Family

Arthur Frederick Mount was born in Cheriton, Kent, his birth registered in the September quarter of 1898 in the Elham registration district (volume 2A, page 1047, line 65). [1] He was the son of George Marsh Mount and his wife Mary Jane, née Raines, and was baptised at All Souls, Cheriton, on 24 July 1898, confirming the family’s parish connection. [1]

In the 1901 census the family was living at 9 Park Road, Cheriton, where Arthur appears as a small child. [1] By 1911 he was still in Cheriton, recorded at 154 High Street as a scholar, indicating that he was still at school in his early teens and growing up within the expanding garrison‑town environment of Folkestone and Cheriton close to Shorncliffe Camp. [1]

Early Life and Family (Home and Kinship)

By 1918 Arthur’s residence is recorded simply as Folkestone, Kent, reflecting the close link between Cheriton and Folkestone as effectively one urban area by the time of the First World War. [1] FamilySearch lists him under ID KLH9‑WD9, anchoring him in the wider Mount and Raines family networks of east Kent. [1]

No marriage or children are recorded for Arthur, and his youth at the time of death (not yet 20) makes it likely he remained unmarried, like many of his contemporaries who enlisted as teenagers. [1] His upbringing in a town with strong military connections may well have influenced his early decision to enlist in a local territorial‑type unit even before he reached full adulthood. [1]

Military Service

Arthur’s first recorded enlistment is on 27 March 1915 at Sandgate, Kent, when he joined the 2nd Kent Cyclist Battalion as private no. 1046. [1] The 2nd Kent Cyclist Battalion was a Territorial Force unit raised in east Kent, used initially for home defence and later for overseas service; like other cyclist units, it provided mobile infantry and communications support. [4]

At some point after 1915 Arthur transferred to the Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), where he was given the new service number 43609 and rose to the rank of Corporal. [1][2] The Machine Gun Corps was formed in late 1915 to centralise the Army’s Vickers machine‑gun units and, by 1918, its infantry component was organised into divisional machine‑gun battalions, each equipped with large numbers of Vickers guns to provide sustained fire support for infantry formations. [5][3]

Military Service (Context in 1918)

By March 1918 Arthur would have been serving in a Machine Gun Corps unit on the Western Front, employed in defensive strongpoints, covering lines of withdrawal, and attempting to break up German attacks with concentrated machine‑gun fire. [5][6] Contemporary machine‑gun doctrine placed great emphasis on indirect fire, barrage fire and the siting of guns to sweep no‑man’s‑land and communication trenches, making MGC positions prime targets for German artillery and infiltration troops. [5][7]

The Imperial War Museums’ “Lives of the First World War” entry for “Corporal 43609 Arthur Frederick Mount, Machine Gun Corps” summarises his service and confirms his unit and rank, though it does not specify his exact company or battalion. [2] Nevertheless, his date of death aligns precisely with the first day of the German Spring Offensive, Operation Michael, when many MGC units suffered very heavy casualties. [1][2][3]

Circumstances of Death

Arthur was killed in action on 21 March 1918, with the place of death given as Germany in the individual report, a shorthand reference often used for casualties who fell or later died in areas that would be recorded in German‑held territory. [1] On that morning, at 4.40 a.m., some 6,500 German guns and 3,500 heavy mortars opened an immense barrage against the British Third and Fifth Armies along a 70‑mile front on the Somme and to the north, targeting especially artillery and machine‑gun positions to neutralise defensive fire. [8][3][7]

After the five‑hour “hurricane” bombardment, stormtroop infantry units advanced through the fog, infiltrating weak points in the British lines and bypassing pockets of resistance, while subsequent waves “mopped up” the isolated strongpoints, many of which were manned by machine‑gunners. [6][9][3] The high casualty rates suffered by the Machine Gun Corps on 21 March 1918, combined with the confusion of rapid withdrawals and the loss of ground to the Germans, explain why Arthur is recorded simply as killed in action and later commemorated on a memorial rather than an identified battlefield grave. [1][2][3]

Burial and Commemoration

Arthur is commemorated in St Souplet British Cemetery, France, on Special Memorial 48. [1] St Souplet British Cemetery was created after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the surrounding battlefields and from smaller cemeteries that could not be permanently maintained; a number of special memorials were erected there to soldiers whose original graves were destroyed in later fighting or whose exact locations were lost. [2][6]

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records him as “MOUNT, ARTHUR FREDERICK, Corporal, 43609, Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), who died on 21 March 1918, aged 19 (approx.), son of George Marsh Mount and Mary Jane Mount, of Cheriton, Kent; commemorated at St. Souplet British Cemetery, Memorial 48.” [1][2] A Find a Grave memorial (ID 24760395) also preserves his details, linking his name to the cemetery and to modern family and local remembrance efforts. [1]

Legacy

Within his extended family Arthur appears under FamilySearch ID KLH9‑WD9, ensuring that his life is integrated into wider family‑history research for the Mount and Raines lines. [1] His medal entitlement – the British War Medal, Victory Medal and Memorial Death Plaque – reflects both his overseas war service and his death in action, and his service as a Machine Gun Corps corporal during one of the most intense days of the war underlines the dangerous nature of his role. [1][2]

More broadly, Arthur’s death on 21 March 1918 places him among the thousands of British soldiers lost in the opening hours of Operation Michael, when the German Army attempted to break the stalemate of trench warfare and drive the Allies back towards the Channel ports. [6][9][3] Through the CWGC record, the St Souplet memorial, and digital resources such as Lives of the First World War, Corporal Arthur Frederick Mount’s story remains accessible to descendants, local historians and all those interested in the human cost of the German Spring Offensive of 1918. [1][2][8]

Key External Links

Sources
[1] Individual-Report-for-Arthur-Frederick-Mount.pdf
[2] Lives of the First World War https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/3264623
[3] German spring offensive – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_spring_offensive
[4] Army Service Numbers 1881-1918 https://armyservicenumbers.blogspot.com/2018/04/
[5] Machine Gun Corps https://aif.adfa.edu.au/OrderOfBattle/Machine_Gun.html
[6] 1918: Year of victory https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/1918-victory
[7] Voices of the First World War: The German Spring Offensive https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-the-german-spring-offensive
[8] German Spring Offensive 1918 – National Records of Scotland (NRS) https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/learning-and-events/first-world-war/german-spring-offensive-1918/
[9] Operation Michael | Canada’s FWW Battles – The Vimy Foundation https://vimyfoundation.ca/battles/operation-michael
[10] Military Service Recognition Book https://fenety.com/epubs/ONCL-20/26/
[11] 3rd Divisional Ammunition Column https://ia801808.us.archive.org/22/items/CEF_DAAC_3rdDiv/CEF_DAAC_3rdDiv_text.pdf
[12] F/O Arthur Frederick https://raffeaea.com/home/stories/f-o-arthur-frederick/
[13] MonthlyArmyList1919July_hocr_pageindex.json.gz https://dn720003.ca.archive.org/0/items/monthly-army-list-1919-july/MonthlyArmyList1919July_hocr_pageindex.json.gz
[14] Military Service Records, Awards, and Unit Histories: A Guide to Locating Sources https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/RS21282
[15] Thursday 21 March 1918 – First World War Casualties – A Street Near You https://astreetnearyou.org/date/1918/03/21
[16] Full Death Roll https://www.fepow.family/Research/Serving_Country/Killed_in_Action/Far_East/Suffolk_Regiment_5th_Bn/html/full_death_roll.htm
[17] Manufacturer & Catalogue No Scale https://www.hannants.co.uk/manufacturer/print-scale/products?per_page=25&sort=stock&search_direction=desc&create_pdf=1
[18] nominal https://aattv.net/nominal.htm
[19] Witness and Canadian homestead, mercredi 27 octobre … https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/4188008
[20] OBITUARY https://www.glengarrycountyarchives.ca/Glengarry_pdf/The-Glengarry-News/1941-1950/1944/Nov/11-24-1944.pdf
[21] We Remember: WWI Records Search http://www.doingourbit.ca/records-search-show-all?field_surname_value=&field_given_name_value=&field_address_at_enlistment_value=&field_birth_city_value=&field_birth_county_value=&field_birth_country_value=&field_wounded_value=All&field_prisoner_of_war_value=All&field_survived_the_war_value=All&page=55

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