General Information:

After a moderate amount of research, there is reason to doubt that Arthur was the registered name at birth. There is no doubt he was buried with the name Arthur ( his gravestone is marked ).

It is probable, that Arthur was registered at birth as Blucher Freebody. The birth year 1881for Blucher fits in with the details of Arthur's death in 1918 aged 37. There isn't an Arthur Freebody registered anywhere near that time. In the 1901 Census of Portsmouth, Blucher appears as a servant in an hotel in Hampshire Terrace (Book Domestic?), aged 19, and gives he was born in Woking, Surrey. The PRO index confirms the name. No record has been found to indicate Blucher/Arthur married.

Arthur served in India at the time of the first world war. He served with the1/9th Battalion Royal Hampshire Regiment.

Arthur died and was buried in India. The anecdotal information says that he died from an infection after being injected with a dirty needle.As a point of interest Blucher comes from Gebhard von Blucher, Field Marshal of Prussia, 1742-1819. Some accounts describe him as a brave yet somewhat crazy soldier who had a passion for fighting the French.