Arthur James Goreham was born on 13 May 1899 in West Ham, the youngest of four children of William Goreham and Mary Jane Goreham née Oriss. His father was a General Labourer. The 1901 census shows the family living at 54 Railway Terrace, Abbey Road, West Ham, but by the time of the 1911 census they had moved to 102 Geere Road, West Ham.
He joined the army on 18 June 1917 and served as Rifleman in France with the King's Royal Rifle Corps, service number 44072. He was wounded and was transferred to the Labour Corps, service number 633809, rising to the rank of Transport Corporal in the 178th Prisoner of War Company before being demobilised on 13 December 1919. He was awarded the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal.
Both his parents died in 1923 and he continued to live at 102 Geere Road, West Ham and was still there with his sister, Mary Jane and brother-in-law Henry Thomas Twigger, at the time when the 1939 England and Wales register was compiled. This shows him as a single man whose occupation was a Furniture Motor Lorry Driver and that he had applied to join the Auxiliary Fire Service.
He was killed as a result of enemy action, aged 41 years, on 20 March 1941 at Plaistow Road, West Ham, and was buried along with another Auxiliary Fire Service member, Harold George Maxwell Huggett, in a grave at the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium, Aldersbrook Road, Newham. Administration of his estate was granted to his sister and his effects totalled £508-15s-0d.
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