Notes
The Bradford Grammar School website (see References) states: 'The Pinfolds moved to Cleckheaton from Buckinghamshire during the 1880s. George Valentine Pinfold was a watchmaker and jeweller who was in business with his two sons. By the time the business
went into receivership in 1894 there were three branches. The elder of the two sons was Arthur Gough Pinfold. He was something of an inventor and manufactured a patented Silent Metronome at his works in Eccleshill. He later invented and produced a Trousers Press. In 1887 he had married Arabella Evelina Caudwell in Nottinghamshire, and they went on to have four children. Arthur George Valentine was their third child born on 10th June 1891. All the
children were baptized at St. Luke’s, Cleckheaton, in one ceremony in 1899.
Arthur and his older brother Ernest both studied at Bradford Grammar School. Ernest went on to university, qualified as an geologist and worked in India. Arthur was at B.G.S. for three years, in the Modern forms. The school records show that he was an average pupil who left after three years when he was fourteen. What the records do not reveal is that Arthur was a talented musician who for several seasons played the oboe in both Italian and English opera companies. In 1911 he was working for his father as a ‘leather goods maker’ at A. Pinfold & Co. Metronome Works on Idle Road, where the trouser press was also manufactured. He also served a term of service with the Territorial Force, presumably four years with the 6th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment. He did not renew his enlistment, perhaps owing to his touring commitments.
When the war began Arthur was twenty-three and although he had military training he did not volunteer. It was not until late in 1915 that he attested under Lord Derby’s scheme and he was called up in March 1916. He was at first posted to the Welsh Regiment (illustrated here). After his basic training it was said that ‘he studied explosives closely’— Chemistry had been one of his better subjects at school—and he gained a first-class certificate as a bombing instructor. It is not known when Arthur crossed the Channel, for how long he was a bombing
instructor and when he went to the front. He was transferred to 9th Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers, also at an unknown date. Arthur had applied for a commission in the Royal Flying Corps, for which he passed the examination, but before he received orders to report for officer training the German Spring Offensive commenced.
In March 1918 the 9th Royal Welsh lost 460 men killed, wounded and missing during the first German attack (’Michael’) and was reduced to 90 men organized into three platoons. The battalion was relieved and sent north to recover, only to find itself in the path of the second German attack in April (‘Georgette’). For 28th April the War Diary records that the battalion, still very under strength, dug and occupied the ‘GHQ Line’ south of Dikkebus. For 29th April it records simply ‘In same line.’ This was the last day of the German offensive south of Ypres and the day Pinfold was killed with twelve other men of the 9th Royal Welsh. An unknown number were wounded. In most cases these dead men had no known graves and their names were recorded on the Tyne Cot Memorial.'