People on board

HAMPTON, Arthur Benjamin

Arthur Benjamin Hampton was born in Worcester in 1884 to Frederick Hampton and Emily Burton, the fourth of their six children. Frederick was a ‘Railway Train Examiner’, and the eldest son, also Frederick, was a ’Railway Train Cleaner’ in the 1891 census, both probably with the Great Western Railway which had a Carriage Works in the town. In the 1901 census Arthur, aged sixteen, was an ‘Iron Moulder’ while his two older sisters gave their occupation as ‘Gloveress’. Worcester had been the major centre for glove making in England.

Frederick Hampton died in 1903 aged fifty-four. In the 1911 census Arthur gave his occupation as ‘Shearing Tin Plates for the Manufactures of Tin Canisters’. Aged twenty-six and single, he was living away from home, though still in Worcester. With him was his ‘Housekeeper’ Florence Harris, a married woman with her three young children. In 1915 Arthur and Florence married and had a child, Frederick, in 1917.

The original military records for Arthur Hampton are not available but the various later compiled sources give differing information. Some say that he enlisted in the Worcestershire Regiment (Service Number 21570) while others, including the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, say that he was with the Royal Munster Fusiliers (Service Number G/156). Both agree that he transferred to the Labour Corps and in October 1918 was with the 659th Home Service Employment Company in Dublin. This suggests that his health was not good.

Presumably returning home on leave he travelled on RMS Leinster on the 10th of October. He did not survive the sinking but his body was recovered and he was buried in Grangegorman Military Cemetery in Dublin.