Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021
Born in Dural NSW, bedstead maker Arthur Walter Page, 27, was living with his parents in the Teacher's Residence attached to the Seven Hills Public School when he enlisted 12 February 1916. After the standard four months training in Australia, Private Page boarded the troop ship Kyarra, travelling to England via South Africa, arriving in Plymouth on 3 August 1916. It was on this voyage that fellow Auburn Memorial man Patrick Healy died in Durban.
Page crossed to France and was taken on strength of the 4th Battalion in October 1916. He survived the bitterly cold northern winter, including two months in hospital in Rouen with trench feet. Page sent a postcard to his parents from Rouen and at an Auburn Picture Show of AIF war photos, the parents recognised their son in some pictures of Australian soldiers.
Page was reported missing in action in the First Battle of Bullecourt, April 1917. It was not until the end of the year that a military court of inquiry held he was killed in action on 15 April 1917. Page was one of three Auburn Memorial men killed at that battle. They had all had been at the Front for around seven months but did not serve at Gallipoli.
The body of Arthur Page was never found, so his name was inscribed on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux. In 1920, Arthur's father, a retired teacher of Northumberland Road, Auburn, was told by a military chaplain that his son had been 'killed and buried by a terrific shell explosion'.
Arthur Walter Page was not related to the other Page on the Auburn War Memorial, 70 Cleveland Edmund Page. Arthur did have a brother serving in the AIF, in the 1st Australian Light Rail Operating Company. His brother survived the war.
Arthur Page is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- Victory Medal
- British War Medal 1914-20
