Arthur Tolputt

War veteran who was honoured for service dies at 87
by Graham Tutthill

A ROYAL Artillery veteran who was only the second person in the country to receive a special award has died.

Arthur Tolputt, who lived at Lyndhurst Road, River, was 87.

Born in Dover, Mr Tolputt went to Barton Road School where he gained a scholarship to Dover County School, now Dover Grammar School for Boys.

He was there from 1934 to 1940 and then went to work for William Crandall's timber importing company.

He joined the Home Guard when it was set up in 1940 and in January 1942 was called up into the Royal Artillery, serving in this country, the Middle East, Italy and Greece, being demobbed as a sergeant in February 1947.

Mr Tolputt immediately joined the Royal Artillery Association and was a member for more than 60 years. He had been secretary of the local branch since 1952, served as welfare officer, and was also secretary of the association’s Kent district for more than 30 years.

Mr Tolputt returned to Crandall’s after the war, and after a brief spell with other companies, worked again for Crandall's in Canterbury and then Ramsgate and Margate where he was branch manager, retiring in 1987.

In 2006 he was presented with the Royal Artillery Association’s Gold Medal by national chairman Maj Gen Michael Shellard at the association’s annual assembly in Blackpool. At the time, Mr Tolputt said he was delighted to receive it, although he did not know why he had been honoured.

The association said the medal recognised continuing “outstanding and extraordinary support” for the association, and represented the highest acclaim that the RAA could bestow. It is only awarded in cases of exceptional merit.

The medal had only been instituted two years earlier when the first one was presented. He was congratulated by the Dover Mayor Cllr Jan Tranter.

Mr Tolputt, who was also an enthusiastic member of the Old Pharosians, the grammar school’s old boys’ association, also helped to fire the guns at Dover Castle to mark the silence on Armistice Days and for other events.