Arthur Henderson

Arthur Henderson was born at 18 Greenhill Road, Paisley, Renfrewshire, on 6 May 1893, the son of George Henderson, a building contractor and magistrate of Paisley, and Elizabeth Purdie. Educated at the John Neilson Institution, Henderson became a noted cricketer with Ferguslie Cricket Club before beginning a career in Glasgow as an accountant and stockbroker with R. Easton & Co. Local Renfrewshire research records that he enlisted in the 6th Battalion, The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War.

Henderson's transition from Territorial soldier to commissioned officer requires careful distinction. He was not commissioned into the 3/6th Battalion as a Special Reserve officer. The official London Gazette places him under the Special Reserve of Officers and records Arthur Henderson, 4th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, among those appointed Second Lieutenants on probation with effect from 8 April 1915. He subsequently went to France in October 1915 and was attached to the regiment's Regular 2nd Battalion. On 19 August 1916 he was appointed Acting Captain.

During the fighting on the Somme, Henderson distinguished himself sufficiently to earn the Military Cross. The award was gazetted on 10 January 1917, citing his courage and determination in leading his company in an attack, advancing the British line and consolidating the captured position. Some later accounts associate the action with Pommiers Redoubt in August 1916, but the official citation itself does not identify that location or date, so it is safer not to present that attribution as established fact.

The spring of 1917 brought a devastating family loss. Henderson's elder brother George Henderson, who had emigrated to British Columbia and enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, was serving as Private 687891 with the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles when he was reported missing and subsequently presumed killed at Vimy Ridge on 9 April 1917. Canadian records identify George as a son of George Henderson of Paisley and specifically as Arthur Henderson's brother. This evidence supports George, rather than a second brother named John, as the Henderson sibling killed on 9 April.

Only two weeks later, on 23 April 1917, Acting Captain Henderson led his company of the 2nd Battalion during the attack near Fontaine-lès-Croisilles on the Hindenburg Line. Almost immediately wounded in the left arm, he continued forward through the German front line and reached the final objective with his men. Under heavy artillery and machine-gun fire and repeated bombing attacks, he organized the consolidation of an increasingly isolated position and maintained the morale of his company. Accounts of the action also record that Henderson, accompanied by only three men, led a bayonet charge against a much larger body of German troops.

Henderson and the surviving members of his command held their ground through the night. According to the later account preserved by Lord Ashcroft, the German force withdrew the following morning and Henderson was apparently shot and killed while attending to his wounded men on 24 April 1917. He was twenty-three years old. The official Victoria Cross citation emphasized his leadership and his "cheerful courage and coolness", concluding that he was killed after successfully accomplishing his task. His Victoria Cross was published in the Supplement to the London Gazette, Issue 30167, dated 3 July 1917.

Henderson was buried in Cojeul British Cemetery, Saint-Martin-sur-Cojeul, Pas-de-Calais, France, where his grave is recorded as B. 61. Both Commonwealth War Graves Commission-derived records and the Imperial War Museums memorial record confirm the cemetery locality and grave reference.

Because Henderson had been killed before his Victoria Cross was announced, his father received his son's Victoria Cross and Military Cross from King George V at Buckingham Palace on 21 July 1917. The three First World War campaign medals were not part of that presentation. Henderson's complete medal entitlement was the Victoria Cross, Military Cross, 1914-15 Star, British War Medal 1914-20, and Victory Medal 1914-19. His surviving medal group is now part of the Lord Ashcroft Collection.

This version resolves all six points in the review. I would not restore the WO 372/9 statement unless you obtain Henderson's precise individual Medal Index Card catalogue reference, and I would not restore the claim that both George and John Henderson were killed on 9 April 1917. The independently identifiable casualty is his brother George Henderson of the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles.