Captain Oswald P. Arkless MC

Oswald Pearson Arkless was a professional singer before immigrating to India, then Canada months before the start of the war. Enlisting into the military in August 1914, he joined the 49th Battalion (E.R.) in France in 1916 and later commanded "A" Company at Passchendaele. His company sustained a 75% casualty rate during the attack and although Arkless was amongst those wounded, he was one of only three officers left standing by the end of the action. He received two weeks leave after the fighting and then returned to service. During the Pursuit to Mons in November 1918, Arkless successfully found the breakthrough across the Mons-Condé Canal which eventually brought the battalion to the gates of Mons on the final day of the war. He returned to England after the war and died in 1954.