Arthur Henry Gutteridge was born in October 1894 in Donington, Lincolnshire. He was the second child of John, an agricultural machine fitter, and his wife Emma. The family lived in Donington, father John’s birthplace where three more children were born although two died in infancy. The family then moved to Stamford, where baby Bethany was born, just before the 1901 census. They lived at first in 20 All Saints Street but by 1911 were at 23 Burghley Houses, Ryhall Road with six children, John, Arthur, Lucy, Bethany, Emma and William.

At the beginning of WW I,  Arthur Henry enlisted in the 1st Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment as Private 200919. He fought at Loos, gaining a 1915 star but on 22 September 1915 he transferred to the newly-formed RAF where he served as 401509.

His date of demobilisation is not known but he returned to Stamford post-war. There he met Maria W M Smith, born Duddington 1893, a housemaid for a widow with two daughters at 56 Tinwell Road. The couple married in the spring of 1923 and lived in Stamford until Arthur’s death there in March, 1979.