5382 Sjt Archibald Tapster, 1st Coldstream Guards

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Arrived overseas: 13 August 1914.

Connection: Postcard.

The photo above was taken in September 1909 at Caterham and shows Coldstream Guards on the left, and Scots Guards on the right. Serjeant Archibald Tapster sits on the front row in the white jacket, fourth from left.

Archibald - probably 'Archie' to those who were on familiar terms - was born on the 11th June 1882 and he enlisted with the Coldstream Guards on the 2nd February 1904. Five and half years later he was a serjeant; good steady career progress, and he arrived overseas as a serjeant with the 1st Coldstream Guards on the 13th August 1914. He appears to have survived those early hectic months unscathed and he was commissioned on the 23rd May 1917, ending the war as a second lieutenant. By the time the 1921 Census was taken he was still serving with the British Army but by now was a lieutenant with the Lincolnshire Regiment at the regimental barracks in Lincoln.

Archibald married Marion Tapster - her maiden name was also Tapster, daughter of Robert Tapster - in July 1922 when he was 40 years old and she was 30, and by now his rank had risen to that of captain. The 1939 Register shows him working as a Commissionaire and living with Marion at 12 Stairburn Road, Leeds. He died in Leeds in 1961 at the age of 78.


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