LEATHERHEAD WAR MEMORIALS - WWI
Pte Arthur Clapshew
1st Bn London Regt, Royal Fusiliers
The same name is on Gt Bookham's War Memorials.
Pte
Arthur Clapshew
1st Royal Fusiliers
Beaugry
Sept 24 1917
Arthur Clapshew is named on the Church Lads
Brigade Roll of Sacrifice tryptich in All Saints' Church
(BFree), Leatherhead.
In May 1915 Leatherhead's Church Monthly
magazine listed him as being a City of London Territorial.
He is named on the Shrine of Sacrifice in the
Chapel of Remembrance in Leatherhead Parish Church.
An Arthur Clapshew is also named on the War
Memorials at St Nicolas Church, Great Bookham, Surrey.
Liam Sumption's research (Taken, Not Given, p91) adds:
"The Regimental records confirm that he was killed in active service
on 24th September 1917 and that he was in the 1st (City of London) Bn,
Royal Fusiliers. He had enlisted at Handle Street, [and according to Soldiers
died in the Great War] was resident St Pancras and his
regimental number was 2000776." He died at Beaugry.
It would appear from the CWGC record that his parents had emigrated by
the time of the CWGC record being made: clearly as a youth Arthur
Clapshew was in this part of Surrey and he enlisted in London.
CWGC record
Name: CLAPSHEW, ARTHUR
Initials: A
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers)
Unit Text: 1st Bn.
Age: 20
Date of Death: 24/09/1917
Service No: 200776
Additional information: Son of Arthur and Nelly Clapshew, of 4907,
Walden St., Vancouver South, British Columbia, Canada.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: I. F. 3.
Cemetery: RED CROSS CORNER CEMETERY, BEUGNY
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/240466/
In the 1901 Census young Arthur, age 3, was living at The Crown in
Great Bookham:
Father: Arthur Clapshew, 36
Licensed Victualler
Mother: Nelly Clapshew, 31
Siblings: George Clapshew, 5; Doris Clapshew, 2; Edward Hanscombe, 45,
boarder
In the 1911 Census Arthur snr, Nelly and young Arthur were living in
Sarah Falkner's home at Bridge Cottage, Bridge Street, River Lane,
Leatherhead. She was aged 71 and was Nelly's mother. Arthur snr was
described as a Wheelwright.
In that Census Arthur's brother George William Clapshew was living as a
boarder at Latimer House School, Fitzroy Sq, London. He was born
in Bookham, 1896, to Arthur and Ellen (Nelly or Nellie)) Clapshew who
had kept the Crown so by 1911 the Clapshew involvement in
keeping public houses appears to have ended. Arthur is named on the All
Saints, Leatherhead, Church Lads Triptych.
The spelling of the surname varies - Clapshew/Clapshaw.
His grandfather, William Clapshew, had been the landlord at the The
Crown and before that at the The Saracen and Ring (now
Grove Cottages, Leatherhead Road).
His father's life as landlord at The Crown had brought what
looks like an expensive and possibly licence-threatening legal case:
Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser
12 October 1907
GREAT BOOKHAM APPEAL ENTERED
At the Epsom petty sessions on Monday Mr FS
Rose, solicitor, referred to the recent conviction against Mr Clapshew,
proprietor of The Crown in Great Bookham. His client had been advised to
give notice of appeal and a special case of been prepared by the Clerk. He
asked that the bench might fix the amount of the recognisances of his
client. The bench decided to fix the amount at £50 ...
Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser
22 February 1908
LICENSING APPEAL
BOOKHAM PUBLICAN'S CONVICTION
In the Divisional Court of the Kings Bench
Division on Friday the case of "Clapshew versus Faulkner" came before the
Lord Chief Justice, Mr Justice A.T. Lawrence and Mr Justice Sutton. Mr
Willis, who appeared for the appellant, and said the other side was
unrepresented, explained that this was an appeal against conviction by the
Epsom Justices under the Licensing act of 1874 for keeping open a public
house during prohibited hours on a Sunday afternoon ....
The facts were that on Sunday, the 16th of June, 1907, at 4 o’clock in the
afternoon, a police-sergeant visited the “Crown“ public house, Great
Bookham, on the occasion of the Friendly Societies Church Parade.
Just before the service began the house was opened at the back and front,
and several men who resided at Leatherhead, which was inside the
thee-miles limit, went in, no one at the door asking if the men were
travellers or not, and they were served. The manager was in the bar, and
police-sergeant asked if the men were travellers, and the manager said
they were and had been asked.
The constable asked the men if that was so, and some of them said they
were never questioned. The officer enquired for the landlord, and when he
came in said “Do you know that the majority of these men are from
Leatherhead?" The landlord said he did not know, the only one he knew was
Smith.
The persons who came subsequently to the house were asked if they were
travellers. The appellant's evidence was to the effect that the manager
was in charge of the public house while the appellant was getting ready to
go to church. The bar was but a very short distance from the door, and the
manager asked everybody where they came from, and was told that most of
them came from Cobham, a distance of more than 3 miles from the house. The
men were utter strangers to him. .....
The Lord Chief Justice said he did not think
it was possible to interfere in this case, because the magistrates set out
the evidence given by the police-sergeant, who found a number of men
served, and appeared to have known that many of them came from a place not
three miles off. Then having set out the evidence of the appellant, they
say that they did not think he exercised sufficient care in ascertaining
that the men were bona-fide travellers. There was no real question of law
in it, and the point was whether there was any evidence on which the
justices could have come to the conclusion that the man had not exercised
care, and they had come to the conclusion that he did not. He thought that
the appeal must be dismissed.
The other judges concurred and the appeal
was dismissed.
Arthur snr and Nellie disappear from the Great Bookham Polling
District lists after 1908, resurfacing in 1918 in the Leatherhead records,
living in Bridge Street. They disappear again after Spring 1920 - their
son George was living in River Lane (now Emlyn Lane), Bridge Street,
Leatherhead. There were no registers produced in 1916 or 1917.
Canadian Passenger Lists 1865-1935 on Ancestry.com show that Arthur,
Nellie and their daughter Doris, all recorded as Clapshaw, travelled to
Quebec in July 1920 on the Tunisian.
The Find a Grave website provides some information about
Arthur's parents' lives in Canada: some of the detail may vary from that
already given ...
father - Arthur Clapshew [snr] - Caretaker, Lightheart
Apartments
BIRTH 7 May 1864 Great Bookham, Mole Valley District, Surrey, England
DEATH 20 Mar 1951 Vancouver, Greater Vancouver Regional District,
British Columbia, Canada
BURIAL Mountain View Cemetery Vancouver, Greater Vancouver
Regional District, British Columbia, Canada
mother - Nelly Harriet Faulkner Clapshew
BIRTH 26 Oct 1869 Holmbury St Mary, Mole Valley District, Surrey,
England
DEATH 13 Sep 1956 Surrey, Greater Vancouver Regional District, British
Columbia, Canada
BURIAL Mountain View Cemetery Vancouver, Greater Vancouver
Regional District, British Columbia, Canada
brother - George William Clapshew - Retired Traffic Manager
BIRTH 7 May 1895 Surrey, England
DEATH 12 Jun 1994 New Westminster, Greater Vancouver Regional District,
British Columbia, Canada
BURIAL West Coast Crematorium Burnaby, Greater Vancouver
Regional District, British Columbia, Canada
sister - Doris Jane Clapshew Tillbrook - Stenographer at time of
marriage
BIRTH 24 Dec 1898 Great Bookham, Mole Valley District, Surrey, England
DEATH 13 Feb 1986 White Rock, Greater Vancouver Regional District,
British Columbia, Canada
BURIAL North Shore Crematorium North Vancouver, Greater
Vancouver Regional District, British Columbia, Canada
If you can add to this page please contact the editor: we would like to
establish where he lived, to understand his Leatherhead/Bookham
connections.
page added 16 Feb 2009 CWGC link updated 7 Nov 17: content updated 7 Feb
18