Update on the life and death of Arthur Alma Kerby
Uncle Art’s World War I draft card states the following: It is dated 5 Jun 1917 in Webb, Cochise County, Arizona. Arthur Alma Kerby, age 23, born 16 Apr 1894 in Pima, Arizona – farmer for himself, single, medium build, tall, grey eyes and black hair. I just found the above picture on FamilySearch in February 2024 and you can tell by this picture that his description on his draft card was pretty accurate. He was a handsome young man.
The reason for this update is because I wrote a blog post about Uncle Art “Arthur Alma Kerby” and posted it on 26 Aug 2015. I wrote about his young life and how it ended so tragically on a field somewhere in France during World War I. Most of the records we had found stated Uncle Art had been killed in action. At the time I wrote that post in 2015 I had no idea where he had died with any certainty, only that it was in France. I knew his body had been brought home for burial almost 3 years after his death, but nothing about his actual death or where he had been interred.
Link to my previous blog post: Arthur Alma Kerby
We always knew that Uncle Art died on 30 Oct 1918 somewhere in France at the young age of 24 years. As of 26 Jan 2024, we now know what happened and where it happened, thanks to Peter Wever of the Netherlands.
I received the following message on Ancestry.com on 26 Jan 2024 from Peter Wever. “Hi Vickie, allow me to introduce myself. I am Peter Wever from the Netherlands and I am researching American soldiers that were initially buried at the military cemetery of Bazoilles-sur-Meuse. Among those was Arthur Alma Kerby of whom you listed a photo on Ancestry. Would you be willing to share a higher resolution of this photo through email. Thanks in advance, Peter”
Peter stated the following in a subsequent email: “Bazoilles Hospital Center was situated in Bazoilles-sur-Meuse, a small village in the Vosges Department in North-East France. Your Uncle Arther died there on October 30, 1918, from "broncho pneumonia following gunshot wounds of left shoulder and leg" at Base Hospital No. 18. This hospital was one of the 7 hospitals that made up the hospital center. He was buried at US Military Cemetery No. 6 on October 31 in Grave No. 348. He was disinterred on February 8, 1921 for transportation to the US where he was reburied. See the notes of Father Dinan, the chaplain of the hospital center, on the burial of your uncle. It also mentions exact time of death. 700 Americans were buried there at US Military Cemetery No. 6.” I received the following images from Peter.
Uncle Art died at 3:10 PM on Oct. 30, 1918
Cause of death listed as WRIA. I asked Peter what that meant. He stated the following: “WRIA or DWRIA means (died of) wounds received in action. It indicates a soldier died after reaching a medical facility.”
This is where Uncle Art was buried until his body was disinterred to be sent home almost 3 years later.
Uncle Art’s body arrived in Douglas, Arizona on 10 Jun 1921 which was a Friday and his body was held there until Saturday when it was brought to Webb. The next day, he was buried with full military honors by the Fred Hilborn Post of the American Legion on 12 Jun 1921 which was a Sunday, at the Whitewater Cemetery not far from Webb where he grew up.
Peter has written a book about the Bazoilles Hospital Center and on the front cover of his book is a picture from Base Hospital No. 18, the same hospital that Uncle Art was in when he passed away. The following is the cover of that book. After Peter contacted us, we ordered his book so we could read more about the hospital. It is very interesting and very informative.
I asked Peter if he knew what battle Uncle Art was wounded in and he stated the following: “I noted you wrote you did not know in which battle he was killed - or wounded. That was the Meuse-Argonne Offensive which lasted from September 26 to November 11, 1918 and is still the largest military activity in American history and also its deadliest military campaign. See the PDF attachment. The 3rd Infantry Division in which your uncle served was first in reserve but went into the lines around October 1. If you look at the map in the PDF attachment, you go north from the grounds gained by the 37th and 79th Division. Then you see the grounds gained by the 3rd Division (marked by a 3 in a circle) which curves to the east going north. Your uncle must have been wounded somewhere on these grounds. From there he was probably transported to a Field Hospital of the 3rd Division, a non-divisional Evacuation Hospital and from there to Bazoilles Hospital Center.“
I made a cut of the PDF map to show it in larger detail and I have added blue arrows to show the different Divisions, that Peter mentioned in his email. Uncle Art was in the 3rd Division. For some reason I can not get my blue arrows to show up. Right in the center in the pink you will see a 3 with a circle around it. It borders the 37th & 79th Divisions which are to the south and then it kind of circles to the northeast still in pink with another 3 in a circle. Uncle Art would have been wounded somewhere in that pink area. The town of Cunel, France is about in the middle of that pink area.
As Paul Harvey use to say at the end of his broadcast, “Now you know…the rest of the story”.
Written by Vickie Beard Thompson for a blog post on 19 February 2024.
