Arthur was the regiment’s first medical officer and went to Europe with the first draft, before transferring to the Royal Army Medical Corps in April 1915.
The Newfoundlanders were sent first to Gallipoli, arriving in September 1915 and forming part of the rearguard when the force withdrew in January 1916. They were then sent to France arriving at Beaumont-Hamel on the Somme in April 1916. By coincidence Arthur Wakefield was serving on the medical staff of their new division.
The Newfoundlanders suffered horrific casualties in the July 1916 offensive, losing 742 of the 810 men who took part in the attack. Arthur was a doctor at the division’s casualty clearing station and saw the carnage first hand: he had recruited many of the dead and wounded, or knew them as patients from his civilian days.