Family :

Education & Career :

Arnold was educated at Bradfield College in Berkshire from September 1889 to December 1895. He not only shone at cricket but also at football being in the first teams in both sports in 1895.

Arnold was a professional cricket player who took the field as a wicket keeper for Worcestershire County Cricket Club. His one match was for Worcestershire against Middlesex at Lord's in 1914. His contribution to the game, which Worcestershire lost by an innings, was small: he made only one dismissal (that of Jack Hearne off the bowling of Robert Borrows), and scored 2 not out and 3 with the bat.

He was also a member of its Incogniti and a passionate hunter.

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

19 October - 22 November 1914. Following the failure of the German Schlieffen Plan in August and September 1914, both sides engaged in a series of linked battles as they sought to outflank each other. The climax of these manouvres was at Ypres in November 1914 when the might of the German Army attempted to break the much outnumbered British Expeditionary Force. The political importance of Ypres, being the last town of any size in Belgium that remained in allied hands, established its importance for both sides and ensured a series of battles over four years.

The First Battle of Ypres in 1914 is characterised by a series of linked heroic stands by outnumbered British soldiers in conditions of confusion and weary endurance. The Germans never knew how close they had come to winning - at one point just the clerks and cooks were the last line of defence for the BEF. By the end of the battle the magnificent original BEF, composed of professional regular soldiers, had been all but destroyed and already the Territorial battalions were called into battle. From the end of 1914 a 'Regular' battalion was in terms of its compostion little different to a Teritorial or later Service Battalion. The professional soldiers had all but vanished.

Detail :

Capt Arthur Stearns NESBITT of the 3rd Battalion Worcester Regiment was killed in action on 7/11/14 at Ploegsteert Wood, Belgium and is commemorated on the Menin Gate memorial in Ypres.

The battalion was in 7 Brigade which was supporting 4th Division in this action. NESBITT was the Adjudant the 6th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment from 1911 until the spring of 1914. On 7 Nov 1914, at the end of the Battle of Armentieres, 3/Worcesters were bombarded in Plugsteet Wood from 0300 until 0400 hrs. The Germans attacked at 0500 hrs and drove the British back into the wood. Although counter attacks forced the Germans from the centre of the wood they could not be ejected from the Eastern edge of it. On that day 3/Worcesters suffered 4 Officers and 42 O/R KIA, 2 Officers and 121 O/R WIA and 39 Missing , a total of 208 casualties of which NESBITT was one.

Masonic :

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley