Arthur George Lee

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Grave/Memorial:  		Lee, Arthur G

1881, Woking, Surrey

Joseph and Jane (née Collyer)

3rd/4th Battalion, The Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment

T.205795

Private

5 November 1917, Belgium, age 36

Tyne Cot Memorial: panels 14-17 		   

Biography:
Arthur George Lee was born, in Woking, Surrey, in 1881. He was the son and fifth child of Joseph, a general labourer, and Jane
(née Collyer). He had four brothers and two sisters.

After leaving school, Arthur worked as a general labourer. In 1911, he was working for the water company.
Arthur was probably conscripted into the Army following the
January 1916 Military Service Act. He served with the 3/4th
Battalion, The Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment.

Arthur George Lee was one of 11 other ranks killed on 5th
November 1917, during the Battle of Reutel, in Belgium. His final
resting place is unknown. His name appears, along with others of
his regiment, on panels 14-17 of the Tyne Cot Memorial.
    




The Tyne Cot Memorial is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. Broadly speaking, the
Salient stretched from Langemarck in the north to the northern edge in Ploegsteert Wood in the south, but it varied in area and shape throughout the war.

The Salient was formed during the First Battle of Ypres in October and November 1914, when a small British Expeditionary Force succeeded in securing the
town before the onset of winter, pushing the German forces back to the Passchendaele Ridge. The battles of the Ypres Salient claimed many lives on both
sides and it quickly became clear that the commemoration of members of the Commonwealth forces with no known grave would have to be divided between
several different sites.

The Menin Gate Memorial commemorates those of all Commonwealth nations, except New Zealand, who died in the Salient, in the case of United Kingdom
casualties before 16 August 1917 (with some exceptions). Those United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after that date are named on the
memorial at Tyne Cot, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war.

The Tyne Cot Memorial forms the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery, which was established around a captured German blockhouse or pill-box
used as an advanced dressing station.

The Tyne Cot Memorial now bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert
Baker with sculpture by Joseph Armitage and F V Blundstone, was unveiled by Sir Gilbert Dyett on 20 June 1927.