Arthur Thomas Highley

Today's post features the second in the series on Hileys/Highleys who were killed in WW2. Arthur Thomas Highley, the son of Fawthrop and Emily (nee Burton) Highley, was born in Warley near Halifax in 1899. 

Arthur served for many years in the Army and joined up in WW1, serving with the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He married Alice Anne Dover in Bradford in 1919 and the couple had seven children. They lived at 17 Back Bedford Terrace in Halifax and Arthur worked at the Cote Hill Bobbin works.

Arthur rejoined the Army in January 1940 and went to France the following month. He was aboard the troopship RMS Lancastria on 17th June 1940 when it was bombed and sunk off St Nazaire in France. The Lancastria was a British ocean liner requisitioned by the UK Government during WW2 and it had received an emergency order to evacuate British nationals and troops from France. The ship was loaded well in excess of its capacity of 1300 passengers and it is estimated that between 4000 and 7000 people died during the sinking.

The sinking of the Lancastria was the largest loss of life from a single engagement for British forces in World War Two and the largest loss of life in British maritime history - greater than the Titanic and Lusitania combined.

A postcard of RMS Lancastria from 1927

The sinking of the Lancastria seen from a rescue ship

Although Arthur died on 17th June 1940 the Halifax Evening Courier still reported him as missing on 7th August.   

This picture appeared in the Courier on 9th August 1940

Arthur's grave at Pornic War Cemetery in France