SPRECKLEY Arthur Freer

Appears in the Worcester/Worcestershire Roll of Honour Book for army casualties located in Worcester Cathedral.

Arthur Spreckley attended Bromsgrove School in Gordon House from 1902 to 1906. He was a School Monitor and played for the school’s XV and XI teams. He passed into Sandhurst in January 1907 and became a Company Officer, joining the 2nd battalion Worcestershire Regiment in 1908. In 1909 he passed to the Indian Army becoming a Lieutenant in 1910. At the outbreak of the war Arthur was kept at the Depot in India but eventually reached France where he was slightly wounded in October 1915. In consequence of this, when the Indian troops were withdrawn he did not accompany his Battalion but returned to India with his wife and elder child who had rejoined him in England only some three weeks earlier. They took passage in the “Persia” and were all lost with the ship. His grave is the sea.

Source: Bromsgrove School at War 1914-19 by Philip Bowen and Bromsgrove School at War 1914-19 by David Cross.

The S.S. Persia left Tilbury bound for Port Said, Aden and Bombay.  She was torpedoed and sunk off Crete with the loss of 334 lives on the 30th December 1915.

Lieutenant Arthur Spreckley in August or September last, returned to India after spending his leave at home.  He was then sent with the draft of his regiment, the 9th Goorkhas (sic) to the Dardenelles.  After being there for some time he was wounded and sent to a London hospital.  He had been in Worcester a couple of months and was returning to India on the “Persia”, taking with him his wife and three year old little girl.  They left the ten month old child with Mr. and Mrs. Spreckley.

Mrs. A.F. Spreckley was a Miss McNinn, whose father held a prominent position in India. Arthur Spreckley, after wounding and discharge from hospital, was not sent back to India directly.  But was for three weeks attached to the 3/7th Worcestershires, while they were encamped at Malvern.

Lieutenant H.R. Lawrence, who sailed for Bombay on the “Persia” is believed to be one of the survivors.  He was also attached to the 3/7th Worcestershires at Malvern.

Mr. and Mrs. Spreckley have four sons serving: Lieutenant R.L. Spreckley who won the Military Cross and was the first to fall.  Lieutenant Malcolm Spreckley, the eldest, is in the Navy.  The third son, Sergeant G.L. Spreckley, is in the Public Schools Corps.

Source for additional information: Worcester Herald 8th January 1916. Newspaper researched by Adrian Carter.

The following information has been researched by Geoff Hill:
1911 Census
Cove Cottage, Northwick, Worcester
Arthur Spreckley, Lieutenant with Indian Army
Herbert William (father), Brewery Director, mother, 2 servants and 1 visitor.

Arthur Spreckley’s Medal Roll Index Card record him as a Lieutenant in the 2nd/9th Ghurka Rifles and subsequently Captain in the Indian Army. British Army Lists 1882-1962 record A.F. Spreckley as a Lieutenant in Indian Army in 1914.

The Aberdeen Press and Journal, 14 September 1915, reports that Lieutenant A. F. C. Spreckley (sic) of 2nd Battalion, 9th Ghurkas, had been wounded. The Birmingham Daily Gazette, 4 January 1916 page 5, stated that he had been wounded, not seriously, in the Dardanelles and had been treated first at Marseilles and then at a London hospital, after which Arthur had returned home to recuperate. There are some accounts that state that he spent 3 weeks of this time attached to the 3rd battalion of the 7th Worcestershire Regiment in Malvern before his departure to Bombay.

Lieutenant Spreckley boarded the SS Persia on 18 December 1915 at Tilbury to re-join his regiment in India. The SS Persia was a defensively armed passenger vessel bound for Port Said, Aden and Bombay. It was torpedoed and sunk on 30th December 1915 off Crete, with the loss of 334 lives. Among the dead were 21 officers and one NCO of the United Kingdom and Indian forces.