Arthur Mayes was a former career soldier. He was born in 1887 in Egleton, the son of Emma Mayes, but the family later moved to Mill Street in Oakham. He enlisted in the 1st Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment at the age of 18, and served in India for several years. He left the army and became a saddler, but when the First World War broke out he rejoined his regiment. Arthur was sent to France with the first draft of the British Expeditionary Force in August 1914 and took part in the Retreat from Mons. He also fought in the Battle of the Aisne, and was killed by a shell on or about 17 September 1914. The explosion wiped out eleven others of  B Company, to which he belonged, as well as wounding several others. They were buried on the spot. A cross was put on the grave with the words: "Here lies half a section of B Company of the 1st Northants."  Inevitably his body was never recovered at the end of the war four years later and he is now remembered on La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial and on the war memorial in Oakham. Egleton, where he was born, does not have a war memorial.