Captain Arthur Legge SAMSON (1901)

2nd Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers
Born 1 June 1882 in Kensington, London
Killed in action 25 September 1915, aged 33
Buried at Cambrin Churchyard Extension, Pas-de-Calais, France. Commemorated on a plaque in St John the Baptist’s church, Armitage, Staffordshire.

Arthur Samson was the only son of Revd Edward Samson and Alice Mary, née Legge, of Armitage Lodge, Rugeley, Staffordshire.

He was educated at Eton College. Whilst at Merton he played cricket for the College XI.

Already serving at the outbreak of war, he was sent to India, and then to France. He was Mentioned in Dispatches in 1915, and awarded the Military Cross on 23 June that year.

He was killed in action on the opening day of the Battle of Loos, on 25 September 1915. Robert Graves, in his book Goodbye To All That, graphically describes Samson’s death:

Samson was lying wounded about twenty yards away from the front trench. Several attempts were made to get him in. He was badly hit and groaning. Three men were killed in these attempts and two officers and two men wounded. Finally his own orderly managed to crawl out to him. Samson ordered him back, saying that he was riddled and not much worth rescuing; he sent his apologies for making such a noise.As soon as it was dark we all went out to get in the wounded. The first dead body I came across was Samson’s. I found that he had forced his knuckles into his mouth to stop himself crying out and attracting any more men to their death.