Born on 9th November 1918 in Neath to Arthur Rue and Magaret Ann (nee Collins), he was baptised Arthur Henry Irivn Rue.
He was the eldest surviving child of Arthur & Maggie, their first son and first daughter both dying within days of birth in the Septembers of 1916 and 1917 respectively.
Arthur had one younger sister, Marjorie (known as Peggy), born in 1920, and one younger brother, Terrence, born in 1925. His parents having lost a further daughter in infancy in 1922.
During the early 1920’s the family lived at 1 Llewellyn Street in Neath, at some point they moved to 32 Wallace Road, Neath.
Arthur left shcool at 14 with no qualifications and began working as a coal miner in the Cefn Coed colliery, where he worked, cutting coal for 6 years until war broke out.
On 2nd May 1939, Arthur enlisted for serving 4 years in the Territorial Army and was posted to 245th Company Royal Enginners. By 8th May he had been sent to Chatham.
On his enlistment his trade is given as Collier. He was single, 20 years old, 5 ft 31/2ins tall, weighed 128lbs and had a 35inch chest. He was of fresh complexion with brown hair and brown eyes.
At joining up, Arthurs next of Kin was given as Margaret Rue, his mother, residing still at 32 Wallace Road. His father had died just 9 months earlier on 1st September 1938 of a mining related illness.
Arthurs rank was as a Sapper and on joingin up he received basic training gaining PIONEER E III as his Army trade. I do not know what this means but it appears to be some kind of engineering trade.
Arthur was embodied (??) on 1st September 1939 and sent overseas on 25th October 1939, arriving in France on 26th October as part of the British Expeditionery Force.
On 8th May 1940, he moved to 221 company, still a sapper with the Royal Engineers.
On 27th May 1940 he was reported Missing. He told how having reched the beach at Dunkirk where the BEF were fleeing back home, his company were ordered back into France to remove bridges to prevent the German offence. He was captured by the Germans, although the exact details are not known. One POW form shows his date of capture as 5th June 1940 in Dunkirk.
He was later “found” as a Prisoner of War in the Stalag VIII B camp on the Germany/Poland border. There he would remain for 4 years and 352 days until being realsed to arrive home on 14th May 1945.
On release in 1945 he had no driving experiance ???? knowledge, no hobby, no ???? now except football, can swim