Twenty-year old Private Arthur Wilson, whose body was never found, was killed some time in May 1915. At 6ft, he was quite tall when the average height seems to have been some inches less than this. He had been born in 1894 and educated in Belfast, and prior to his enlistment on 26 August 1914 had worked as a fireman for New Zealand Railways, based in the North Canterbury settlement of Waikari. Despite his Canterbury connections he was posted to the Otago Regiment to make up the numbers (as had been another Belfast volunteer Hereward Hopkins). Like many young men he may have seen this experience as an adventure, and forfeited 3 days' pay for being absent without leave in Zeitoun in December 1914. Evidence from other men's conduct sheets suggests that this was a relatively common occurrence. He landed with the rest of his Otago Reiment on 25 April 1915 and was classified as missing a month later. A Board of Enquiry held in Ismailia in Egypt in January 1916 concluded that he had be killed on or about that day. He is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial in Gallipoli, as well as on the Belfast War Memorial and on a family grave in the Belfast cemetery (see photo below).
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