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Pte Arthur Harold Stenning underwent a medical examination prior to enlistment on 28th October 1914. On 2nd November of that year he enlisted in the A.I.F. at Geelong, Victoria. He was 26 years and 1 month old.

He underwent a period of basic training at the Army camp situated at Broadmeadows, about 6 kilometres north of Melbourne as a private in the 2nd/2nd battalion.

On 31st January 1915 he was appointed to the Field Artillery reinforcements in the 2nd Field Artillery with the rank of Gunner. There is no information among his Army papers as to when he left Australia for Egypt and then to Gallipoli, but I know from stories he told that he spent some few weeks there.

He was at the landing on Gallipoli on 25th April 1915. On 14th July of that year he was transferred to the 3rd Battery of the Field Artillery on the Gallipoli Peninsula. On the 15th August 1915 he was admitted to the 2nd Field Ambulance post with influenza but discharged back to his unit the same day. On 6th September 1915 he was transferred to the 3rd Field Artillery Brigade at Gallipoli. On the 9th November 1915 he was transferred to the Army Corps Ammunition Pack.
He left Gallipoli when that area was evacuated and arrived in Alexandria, Egypt on the troopship “Madras”on 3rd January 1916. On 15th February he was transferred to the 15th Field Artillery Brigade. However on the 25th February 1916 he was again transferred this time to the 5th Division Artillery at Tel-El-Kebir, and on 16th March he was transferred to the 5th Division Ammunition Column.

On 1st May of that year he was promoted to the rank of Bombadier at Ferry Post East. On 18th June he sailed from Alexandria on H.M. Transport “Knight Templar” to proceed to France to join the British Expeditionary Force, disembarking with his unit at Marseilles on 25th June. After some 4 months “somewhere in France” he spent 9 days on leave somewhere in France.

On 27th November he was transferred to the 5th Field Ambulance Post “in the field” suffering from influenza. He returned to his unit on 5th December 1916. On 21st January 1917 he was thrown from his horse and suffered a broken tibia. He was transferred to the Anzac Casualty Clearing Station and then to 38th Casualty Clearing Station.

The 25th January saw him transferred to the 10th General Hospital at Rouen and embarked on the hospital ship “St. Patrick” for England on 25th January. On 29th January 1917 he was admitted to the Australian General Hospital, Brighton some 5 miles from the village of Rottingdean where he was born.

By an even stranger coincidence on 16th February he was transferred to York Place Military Hospital which was actually the High School he had attended. Sadly on his return to England he learnt that his mother had died while he was on his way home from France, but his father and other relatives were all frequent visitors.

On 21st April he was transferred to the 3rd Auxiliary Hospital at Brighton where he remained until 25th May when he went on leave and returned to his father’s home in Rottingdean where he stayed until the 9th June.

On 10th June he was sent to the 2nd Australian Command Dept. at Weymouth for a medical examination and on 23rd June a Medical Board approved his repatriation back to Australia.

On 27th July he embarked on the Hospital Transport A71 “Nestor” and arrived in Melbourne on 24th September and was admitted to the 11th Australian General Hospital, where he remained until 5th November when he was recommended for discharge as medically unfit. He was discharged in Melbourne on 19th November, and on 20th November 1917 he was granted a pension of 16/6 per fortnight.

He was awarded the 1914-15 Star (sometimes known as the Gallipoli Medal) the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.