Dr. John D Arnett - The County and the Kaiser

Lieutenant, Medical Reserve Corps.

Killed in action while tending to casualties at a dressing station in Berthen, France, April 16, 1918. Age 29.

Town: Pavilion (also Orleans County; see text)

Burial: Flanders Field American Cemetery, Plot B Row 2 Grave 10, Waregem, Belgium

John Deming Arnett was born on June 2, 1888 in Millville, New York (a part of Shelby, which encompasses the village of Medina, all in Orleans County). He grew up in the Medina area (several sources say Knowlesville), graduating from Medina High School. John attended Buffalo Medical College for his first three years of training, then graduated from Albany Medical School in 1914 and, according to his record in the AMA’s Deceased Physicians Card File, interned at the Hospital of the Good Shepherd. The 1915 NY State Census shows him living in Shelby with his parents (John W and Virginia S Arnett); “doctor” is given as his occupation. Sometime shortly thereafter, no later than 1916, Dr. Arnett set up his practice in Pavilion (Genesee County), New York. His draft registration card, NYSS, and 1917’s Farm Journal Illustrated Directory of Genesee County all give a Pavilion address. The NY Roll of Honor lists him under Orleans County. He can legitimately be claimed with pride by both counties.

On January 7, 1917, John Arnett married Miss Florence Sayers of Albion. The couple was living in Pavilion when Arnett volunteered for the Army Medical Reserve Corps in response to a national wartime call for physicians. He was called to active service in Washington, DC on August 2, 1917, and sailed from New York for overseas duty on September 18 aboard SS St. Paul.

Dr. Arnett was attached to the British Royal Army Medical Corps and spent the remainder of 1917 in military hospitals in Portsmouth, Winchester, and Southsea, England, treating wounded soldiers. He was sent to France in January, 1918, arriving there on his first wedding anniversary, and was immediately sent to the front lines, where he was assigned to the 99th Field Ambulance, part of the British Expeditionary Forces’ 33rd Division.

Dr. Arnett was killed four months later in an artillery bombardment during the Battle of the Lys while tending to wounded soldiers at a casualty dressing station at Berthen, in northern France.

At the time he was killed, German forces had launched a massive spring offensive across the Western Front. In Flanders, the German Fourth and Sixth Armies were advancing north and west, attempting to push the British and French in southwest Belgium and northern France toward the English Channel. The day before Arnett’s death enemy troops had taken the village of Bailleul, just southeast of Berthen, which they shelled heavily the following day. It was in one of those attacks that Dr. Arnett was killed.

Some accounts say that Arnett lost his life while caring for wounded at a Trappist monastery atop Mont des Cats, a ridge-like hill that rises above the countryside from the western edge of Berthen. The monastery’s online history of the 1918 bombings (see sources) confirms that some shells struck there on April 15 and 16, prompting the abbey to be evacuated as German troops advanced, but there was relatively little damage. The grounds were indeed severely shelled over the following weeks, particularly on May 9.

But documents show that on April 16 Dr. Arnett was working at the 99th Field Ambulance’s dressing station in Berthen, where hundreds of wounded had been pouring in from the fighting, when he was killed by a shell fragment.

In an article published in the May 22, 1918 LeRoy Gazette-News, the details of Dr. Arnett’s death are described as told by his mother-in-law, Mrs. Charles Sayers, to a friend in Pavilion. “Dr. Arnett was standing talking with three others, three miles back of the front line trenches, when a German shell exploded near them, a piece of it striking Dr. Arnett on the chest,” reads the article. “He lived ten minutes, but he did not speak. The date was the 16th of April and the name of the place, Berphon [sic; Berthen], France. He was buried the next day, the 17th at Mt. Bes Caps [Mont des Cats], a beautiful spot, where are buried the remains of several officers killed in 1914.”

Corroborating the timing and place of Dr. Arnett’s death is the 99th Field Ambulance’s official War Diary, kept daily by the unit’s commander. Entries show the 99th setting up a main dressing station at the Berthen camp on April 13, and treating “a great number of wounded” on the 15th. “The camp was shelled heavily at 10 A.M.,” begins the entry for the next day, April 16. After leaving to search for another site, the commander “Returned to the camp at 4 P.M. and found it evacuated and practically destroyed. Lieut ARNETT and Qm Sergt MOHSE were killed . . . . the shelling stopped about 6 P.M. I removed the wagons and stores and moved here [Mont des Cats].”

Also, a page in the personal war diary of Private William J Spiers, a member of the 99th Field Ambulance, lists the names, dates and locations of the unit’s casualties, including: “1st Lt. J.D. Arnett, U.S.M.C., Berthen, April 1918.”

Dr. John Deming Arnett was Genesee County’s first WWI combat casualty. He was reinterred after the war at Flanders Field American Cemetery in Waregem, Belgium.

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—— [CLICK ON DOCUMENTS TO OPEN FULL VIEW IN SEPARATE TAB] ——

April 27, 1918 Batavia Daily News p1 c5-6

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April 29, 1918 Batavia Daily News p2 c5

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May 1, 1918 LeRoy Gazette News p8 c1

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May 8, 1918 LeRoy Gazette-News p8 c3

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May 22, 1918 LeRoy Gazette-News p8 c1

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Source: New York Service Summary from Abstracts of World War I Military Service, 1917-1919, NY State Archives, Albany, New York

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Source: AMA Deceased Physicians Card File 1906 – 1969, American Medical Association, U.S. National Library of Medicine, History of Medicine Division, Bethesda, Maryland

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Source: “British Army War Diaries 1914-1922,” The National Archives of the UK , War Diary 99 Field Ambulance 33 Division 1915 Nov. – 1919 Apr., reference WO 95/2418/2. © Crown copyright. Used by permission.

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Source: Personal war diary of Pvt. William James Spiers, 99th Field Ambulance. Private collection. Used by permission.