Christ College Remembers – Second Lieutenant Euan Edward Arnott

REMEMBRANCE DISPATCH NO. 19 HAS BEEN POSTED IN HOUSES TO COMMEMORATE SECOND LIEUTENANT EUAN EDWARD ARNOTT (SCHOOL HOUSE 1913-1915) WHO WAS KILLED IN ACTION ON 23RD SEPTEMBER 1916.

Euan Arnott was born in Aberdare. He and his younger brother joined School House in September 1913 and, as soon as he arrived at Christ College, Euan was fully involved in a range of sporting activities. He successfully took part in athletics competitions and played fives as well as cricket, hockey and rugby. He played for the Rugby Football XV and in his final term at school he was selected for the Cricket XI.

At the outbreak of war Euan Arnott and his friend and fellow cricketer, Trevor Akrill Jones, had been too young to enlist but in the summer term of 1915, as soon as they were old enough, they left school to sign up. They began Officer Training in the middle of what would have been their final cricket season.

Gazetted Second Lieutenant on 4th January 1916, Euan first joined the 3rd Battalion, the Welsh Regiment and was later attached to the 2nd Battalion. In the summer of 1916 he was one of thousands of young men who were sent to France in preparation for ‘the Big Push’. Within a few weeks of his arrival Second Lieutenant E E Arnott died of wounds sustained at the Somme.

Second Lieutenant Euan Edward Arnott was the youngest Old Breconian to be killed in the First World War. The friend with whom he enlisted, Trevor Akrill Jones, was killed in a flying accident in 1918. They are both remembered on the Christ College War Memorial. Second Lieutenant E E Arnott is buried in the Worlencourt British Cemetery, France.