Very little is known about Arthur Earle’s war service, apart from his name on the Roll of Honour. No medal card has been found, which means almost certainly that he did not leave the country. His military documents did not survive the London blitz.

      In the 1911 census Arthur James Earle, aged 25, was living with his wife Elizabeth Ann in the Lower Bransgrove Cottage where he was employed as a labourer. He had married Elizabeth Ann Turner in 1908. She was born in Dolton and in the 1891 census is recorded aged 4, living on Coopers Hill with her elder sister Maud and her Grandparents, William Coombes and his wife, with their two children. The Turner family were the proprietors of the King’s Arms in Winkleigh.      Men serving in the Royal Army Service Corps (the ‘Royal’ was only added in 1918) are among the most difficult to research, so vast was the numbers of camps and depots in which they served in the Lines of Communication", the supply lines from port to front line, and the camps, stores, dumps, and workshops of the rear areas. At peak, the ASC numbered an incredible 10,547 officers and 315,334 men. In addition there were tens of thousands of Indian, Egyptian, Chinese and other native labourers, carriers and stores men, under orders of the ASC. The ASC was organised into Companies, each fulfilling a specific role. Some were under orders of or attached to the Divisions of the army; the rest were under direct orders of the higher formations of Corps, Army or the GHQ of the army in each theatre of war. These comprised the Base Depots on the coast, the Horse Transport Companies, Mechanical Transport Companies (including Companies in Divisional Supply Columns, Ammunition Parks and Companies attached to the heavy artillery, Omnibus Companies, Motor Ambulance Convoys, Bridging and Pontoon units and Workshops), and finally the Army Remounts Service and the ASC Labour Companies.

      Arthur Earle died in 1963, aged 77.

16 July 2011