Person

Born in the small village of Stanley, Crook on 8 May 1888, Arthur was brought up by his parents, Thomas and Sarah Tinkler. He lived, at least until he was aged ten, in the same street with his six siblings. His mother died in 1908 and in 1910 Arthur and his older sister, Ethel, arrived in Canada, where Arthur was intending to find work in the mines at Crowsnest Pass on the British Columbia /Alberta border. The 1911 Canadian census shows them both lodging with the Greenwell family in Fernie, British Columbia (BC).

After Ethel married in the spring of 1915 Arthur travelled to Edmonton, Alberta. On 6 May he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) and became Private 433139 in the Canadian Army Medical Corps, arriving with them in England four weeks later. On 9 October 1915 Arthur was posted to France where he joined the 49th Battalion. After just two weeks, he fractured his right arm (not whilst on duty) and was invalided back to Shorncliffe where he was taken onto the strength of the 9th Reserve Battalion.

June 1916 saw him again drafted to the 49th Battalion and posted to France. He joined this battalion on the front line on 18 June where nine days later he was again wounded and invalided back to England early in July. Having been shot in the left shoulder, Arthur was out of action for two months, rejoining the 49th Battalion in France in mid October 1916. Appointed lance corporal in September 1917, the following month, during fighting at Passchendaele, Arthur received a rifle bullet in his left thigh. For the third time, after initial treatment at Etaples, he was evacuated to England on the hospital ship “Brighton”. Treatment in a hospital in Liverpool was followed by time at Buxton Specialist Hospital and convalescence at Woodcote Park, Epsom.

After a year of treatment Lance Corporal Tinkler returned to Canada and spent a month in Ogden Military Hospital in Calgary, before being formally discharged from the CEF as “medically unfit due to wounds received in action” on 6 December 1918.

There is no further information on the life of Arthur Tinkler post-war, just a note on his service record that he died in Grace Hospital, Winnipeg on 24 March 1971.

Civil Parish: Crook and Billy Row

Birth date: 8-May-1888

Death date: 24-Mar-1971

Armed force/civilian: Army

Residence: 72 Wooley Terrace, Stanley, Crook (1891 census)
70 Wooley Terrace, Stanley, Crook (1901 census)
West Fernie, British Columbia (1911 Canadian census)
Brule Mines, Alberta (Service record, 1922)
Suite 10G, 491 Stradbrook Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba (Winnipeg Free Press obituary 1971)

Religion: Church of England

Employment: Miner (1911 Canadian census)

Family: Parents: Thomas Tinkler, Sarah Calvert Tinkler nee Birkbeck
Siblings: John Tinkler, Thomas H.Tinkler, George Tinkler, Mary A.Tinkler, Margaret F.Tinkler, Ethel Tinkler

Military service:

Private 433139
Canadian Army Medical Corps
49th Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force
9th Reserve Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force

Medal(s): British War Medal
Victory Medal

Gender: Male

Contributed by Jayell, Durham