Todd, Arthur
Private
No. 24573, 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards
Killed in action on Tuesday 27 August 1918 (aged 26)
Buried:
Mory Abbey Military Cemetery, France (Grave V. C. 26)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Newtownards and District War Memorial
BIOGRAPHY
Arthur Todd was born on 28 October 1891 in Church Street, Newtownards and he was a son of John and Margaret (Maggie) Todd (nee Holland) who were married on 12 December 1889 in Regent Street Methodist Church Newtownards. John Todd from Church Street, Newtownards was a son of Henry Todd, a quarryman. Maggie Holland from Church Street, Newtownards was a daughter of George Holland, a shoemaker.
The Todd family lived in Church Street, Newtownards.
John Todd worked as a quarryman and labourer and he and Maggie had six children:
Henry (born 25 July 1890 in Ford Street, Newtownards)
Arthur (born 28 October 1891 in Church Street, Newtownards)
Samuel George (born 11 October 1893 in Church Street, Newtownards)
Agnes (born 29 August 1895 in Church Street, Newtownards)
Maggie (born 31 October 1897 in Church Street, Newtownards)
Rebecca (born 28 June 1899 in Church Street, Newtownards)
Maggie Holland had two children before she and John Todd were married:
Sarah Jane (born 8 August 1878)
John (born 31 December 1882)
The four youngest children were baptised in Greenwell Street Presbyterian Church Newtownards.
Prior to the outbreak of the Great War, Arthur Todd worked as a labourer. He enlisted in Belfast and served with the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards.
Arthur Todd and Sarah Murphy were married on 26 January 1918 in Scrabo Gospel Hall, Ballyalton, Newtownards. Sarah Murphy from 12 Movilla Street, Newtownards was a daughter of William Murphy, a labourer.
Seven months later, Private Arthur Todd was killed during an advance on 27 August 1918. The Rev. C.F. Lyttleton, Chaplain, wrote to Sarah Todd to express his deepest sympathy and he assured her that Arthur’s death had been ‘quite painless and instantaneous’.
Sarah Todd had been married for just seven months when she was widowed and she placed a For King and Country notice in the Newtownards Chronicle. It contained the verse:
Taken away in his early youth,
Taken from those he loved,
From serving his King on earth below
To serve his great King above.
I little thought his time so short
When he on furlough came
When to the front again he went
Never to return again.
Private Arthur Todd (No. 24573) was 26 when he died and he was buried in Mory Abbey Military Cemetery in France. There is an inscription on his CWGC headstone:
TILL THE DAY BREAK
Private Arthur Todd (No. 24573) is commemorated on Newtownards and District War Memorial.