PIONEER ARTHUR FREDERICK PERCY ELD
ROYAL ENGINEERS
15TH AUGUST 1917 AGE 20
BURIED: PHILOSOPHE BRITISH CEMETERY, MAZINGARBE, FRANCE
Arthur Eld was a very particular kind of Edwardian; not a subject of King Edward VII, although he had been one of those, but a former pupil of King Edward VI's Five-Ways Grammar School in Birmingham. He had been a star pupil, consistently coming among the top in his class, particularly in science. He left school in 1914 and began working as a chemist. Having attested on 11 December 1915, he was not called up until March 1917. He went to France on 25 May 1917.
On 14 July 1917, Eld was posted to No. 4 Special Company Royal Engineers. I would suggest that his skills as a chemist had been recognized since these special companies were gas warfare units; No. 4 was a gas mortar unit, firing gas shells from 4-inch Stokes mortars. Eld did not last very long. He was dead a month later.
His parents established the Eld Memorial Prize at King Edward's Five-Ways in their son's memory. First awarded in 1919, it was initially intended as a prize for science. However, by 1925 it had been divided into two prizes, one for science and one for sport. Both prizes are still awarded.