Andrew Behan has kindly carried out some research on this man:
Sergeant Archibald Robert Howard, M.M. Born on the 29th October 1886 in West Norwood, the son of George and Frances Margaret Howard. His father was a Metropolitan Police Constable. He attended the Council School, Salter’s Hill, Norwood and in April 1891 the family were living at 17 Oxford Terrace, Park Road, Norwood. On the 1st July 1896 his parents had him, together with two brothers and two sisters, baptised at Emmanuel Church, West Dulwich. In March 1901 he is shown on the census as a 14 year old Page Boy living at the home of a Dr John Reynolds at 11 Brixton Road, Lambeth. He was appointed in November 1909 as an Assistant Postman at Norwood. In April 1911 he was living with his parents and the rest of his siblings at 48 Goodrich Road, East Dulwich as his occupation on the census was as a Postman. In September 1911 he was appointed as a Postman in London’s Western District Office. He was a Post Office Clerk when he enlisted on the 5th August 1914 and entered France on the 7th July 1915. He was serving in C Battery, 70th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, service number 9380, when he was Killed in Action on the 23rd April 1917, aged 30 years, and was buried where he fell. His major wrote that he was invaluable in action, always calm when facing danger and set a splendid example to the whole battery. He was awarded the Military Medal for attending to the telephone whilst under gas attack and also for attending to the wounded under fire. He was posthumously awarded the 1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. Probate was granted to his father who was living at 54 St.Aidan’s Road, East Dulwich. Effects £99 6s 10d. As he has no known grave he is commemorated on The Arras Memorial at Faubourg D’Amiens Cemetery, Arras, France.
