Chief Mechanician Arthur Rushworth, 2 (N) Aeroplane Repair Depot, Royal Air Force. Service No: 39147.
Chief Mechanician Arthur Rushworth.
Arthur was born in Haworth on June 15, 1886. Parents George and Sarah Anne Rushworth. He was baptised on January 30, 1887 at St Michael and All Angels parish church.
By 1891 he was four years old and living at Milking Hill near Sladen Bridge with his parents and elder sister Mary plus his uncle William Binns. Arthur’s father George was a carter and farmer.
By 1901 he was fourteen and living at 3, Lumbfoot near Stanbury with John Petty and his mother Sarah, now Petty plus his sister Mary. John Petty was a carter and farm servant, and Arthur was employed as a worsted spinner.
In the 1911 census George was twenty-four years old and still living at 3, Lumbfoot in Stanbury with his step-father John Petty, plus his mother and sister. He was a joiner at a joinery works for the Co-operative Society.
Arthur married Sarah Maria Sutcliffe on September 23, 1913 at St Michael and All Angel’s Church in Haworth.
During the war, at the age of thirty he attested with the Royal Flying Corps on July 25, 1916 and he was living at 5, Aire Street with Maria. As carpenter he would have been well qualified to work on the wooden airframes of the aeroplanes of the time.
He was appointed Acting Corporal on October 3, 1916, and Airman First Class on July 1, 1917.
He was promoted to full Corporal a month later on July 1 and very quickly promoted again, to Sergeant on October 1, 1917.
The Royal Air Force was established on April 1, 1918 and Arthur was transferred to it with the rank of Sergeant, Air Mechanic.
He was appointed to Acting Chief Mechanic by July 1 and to Chief Mechanic on September 1. He was working at RAF Stores Section no. 2, Aeroplane Repair Depot.
Arthur died of pneumonia at home on November 3, 1918, although it is possible this was related to the influenza epidemic.
His Royal Air Force record states he was mentioned on January 28, 1919 for valuable services.
Arthur had no medals because he did not serve overseas in a war theatre.
He was buried in grave 14, plot A of Keighley (Stanbury) Cemetery, near to Stanbury’s Great War memorial, which despite his death in service during the war, does not bear his name.
Arthur Rushworth is named on the Haworth War Memorial at Bridgehouse Lane and on the Oddfellows Roll of Honour in the care of Wyedean Weaving in Haworth.
Source information:
Birth, marriage and death records.
1891, 1901 and 1911 census.
RAF service records
Keighley News archives, Keighley Library.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
