Arthur Estcourt

Arthur Charles Sotheron Estcourt MC (26 September 1893 – 18 August 1918) was a British soldier of the First World War.

Early life
The son of the Reverend E. W. S. Estcourt, of Swindon, Wiltshire, and a nephew of George Sotheron-Estcourt, 1st Baron Estcourt, Estcourt began his education at Mr C. E. F. Stanford's School, Rottingdean, from where in 1907 he won a Fishmongers' Company Open Scholarship of £50 a year to Gresham's School, Holt, where he remained from 1907 to 1912. He then briefly attended Magdalene College, Cambridge, between 1912 and 1913. In January, 1912, he had been awarded a Magdalene College mathematics scholarship worth £50 a year.

Estcourt's brother, Walter Bucknall Estcourt, served as an officer in the East Africa Corps.

Military career
Estcourt was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the New Armies on 17 November 1914, then as a temporary second lieutenant of the Wiltshire Regiment and later of the Gloucestershire Regiment.

In September 1916 he was awarded the Military Cross, the London Gazette report reading: Temp. 2nd Lt (Temp Lt) Arthur Charles Sotheron Estcourt. Glou. R. :- for Conspicuous Gallantry in action. He fought his battery with great effect under very heavy fire during the attack, dispersing many enemy bombing parties. He also knocked out a machine gun which was holding up the advance of one of our bombing parties.

He was promoted Acting Captain in the Trench Mortar Battery on 16 February 1917. He then became a Lieutenant (Observer) in the Royal Air Force. Twice wounded, he was killed in action on 8 August 1918.