Rank: Private 7497 Regiment: 1st Bn., Devonshire Regiment Died: died 9 May 1917 Age: Age 31 Parish: Colaton Raleigh Local Memorials: Colaton Raleigh Memorial Plaque Other Memorial: Arras Memorial [Google] PDF Download: LAKE Arthur Charles
Arthur was born in Colaton Raleigh on 2 September 1886, the son of William Lake and Anna (nee Hitchcock). He was one of six children. His mother was the sister of Helena May, so Arthur was a cousin of Bertrude Elliott, who is also remembered on this site.
He married Minnie Osborne from Topsham, and they had a daughter Edith Margaret, who was born in Bridestowe in 1916 and who died in 1997 in Exeter. Minnie died in Topsham in 1958.
Records show Minnie’s address just after WW1 as being 29 Victoria Road, Topsham. Arthur’s father William, who was born in Otterton, was later recorded as living in New Street, Exmouth.
Arthur is remembered on the war memorial in Bridestowe, where he was a postman before the war.
He served with the 1st Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment, who on 8 and 9 May 1917 were involved in heavy fighting as the Germans tried to retake Fresnoy which had been captured by the British just days before.
Private 7497 Arthur Charles Lake is also remembered with honour on the Colaton Raleigh war memorial in St John’s Church, and on the Arras Memorial to the Missing.
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I am very proud to declare that Arthur Charles Lake was my great grandfather. My grandmother Christine Rowe (Lake) was one of the three daughters he left behind when killed in France. She, like many others never met her father and after his death moved from their home in Bridestowe where he was postman, to her sisters in Topsham where eventually my mother was born in Victoria Road. He was born in Colaton Raleigh and enlisted into the first battalion Devonshire Regiment at the court house on Globe Hill Woodbury before the outbreak. He has no known grave but is not and will not be forgotten by my family and we mark his passing at Bridestowe and Colaton Raleigh memorials.