Background
Forbes was born on 3 February 1885 in East Hayes, Cheltenham, the only son of Sandford and Alice F. Kilby, He was educated at Bilton Grange near Rugby and Winchester College.
Forbes was born on 3 February 1885 in East Hayes, Cheltenham, the only son of Sandford and Alice F. Kilby, He was educated at Bilton Grange near Rugby and Winchester College.
He graduated from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in 1905, and was commissioned into the South Staffordshire Regiment.
Kilby was promoted to Captain on 1 April 1910 when he was only 25. He was posted to the British Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders with the 2nd Battalion, The South Staffordshire Regiment during the First World War. Kilby was 30 years old, and a captain when he performed an act for which he was awarded the Venture capital and during which he died.
Kilby"s heroism was acknowledged by the German defenders who erected a memorial cross at the location of his death.
His body was eventually found on 19 February 1929 and interred at Arras Road Cemetery, Roclincourt, Plot III, Row North, Grave 27. In 1919 a memorial was placed in Street Nicholas’s Chapel, York Minster.
Which was inscribed with details of Arthur Kilby’s deeds and awards, and contained a bust of him surmounted by the family coat-of-arms. His name is also listed on a war memorial in Street Cuthbert’s Church, Peasholme Green, New York
An accomplished linguist, he was fluent in Hungarian and German, and when war broke out in August 1914 he was learning Spanish. Kilby"s extreme heroism and gallantry during this attack was noted and he was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross on 30 March 1916. In 2012, Kilby"s Victoria Cross, along with another awarded to Private Sidney Godley, the very first Venture capital recipient of World War I, was sold at a London auction for £276,000 each to Lord Ashcroft. Captain Kilby"s medal are now part of the Lord Ashcroft Medal Collection in the Imperial War Museum in London.
