Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Biography for Arthur Riley

Arthur Riley was born in Melbourne, Victoria in 1879 to his parents Annie Murphy and his dad Daniel Riley. He was nearly 42 years old at the time he enlisted and was was 5ft 8 ½ and weighed 136 pounds. He had brown hair and grey eyes. On the 13th of July 1916 Arthur Riley departed for England on the HMAT Seung Bee. On the 5th of August Arthur Riley departed from Plymouth to go to Germany.

On the 16th of August Arthur Riley was moved to the frontline in one of the bloodiest battles in history, the battle of the Somme. This battle lasted five months from July 1916 to November 1916. When I said it was one of the bloodiest battles in World War 1, one million people died. Arthur Riley was a private, so he would have seen so many people die.  Since Riley was a private he would have been asked to go out into no man’s land and go attack the Germans.

Whilst on leave during the battle of the Somme, Riley became very sick, so sick that he had to be taken to hospital. He spent the next 3 weeks in recovery.

On July 17th 1917, while he was in hospital, Riley's unit served in a another battle, called The Battle of Passchendaele, which took place in the north of Belgium. It was not one of the bloodiest battles in World War 1. The Battle of Passchendaele was also known a the 3rd battle of Ypres and it was fought between the allies and the German. The battle was for control of the ridges south and east of the Belgian city of Ypres in West Flanders. It definitely was an important battle because for the British because this part was ruled by the Germans.

On the 5th of January 1918 Riley Arthur returned to Adelaide he had spent nearly 2 years a war. He arrived back in Adelaide for the rest of his life he may have suffered the common war disease PTSD where whenever he heard a loud bang he would get scared because it would have reminded of the war. He lived until he died of old age.