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TECHNICIAN FIFTH CLASS
ARTHUR H. SINCLAIR was born in New Jersey. Twelve at the time of the
April 12, 1930 census, he was the son of Arthur and Katherine Eisele Sinclair.
In 1930 the family, which included younger brother Warren, lived at 80
Grove Street in Haddonfield NJ. His father died in May of 1934 at the
age of 40, in Haddonfield, after an illness of one year.
Arthur Sinclair was a star athlete at
Haddonfield Memorial High
School, and was signed with the New York Giants
baseball team. By 1936 he was playing baseball in the independent and
industrial leagues in Camden County, playing simultaneously for the
Lucas Athletic Association team in the Lower County League and for the
New York Shipbuilding Corporation team. He was one of the leading hitters and pitchers
in the
Camden County Baseball League, and led the
circuit in hitting in the 1942 season.
Arthur Sinclair was
inducted into the United States Army on July 23, 1942. One of the men he was inducted
with, Salvatore
Sapio, was also from
Haddonfield, and the two had grown
up together. Both men were assigned, with several other
local men, to the 83rd Chemical Battalion, Motorized. This unit operated
chemical mortars, firing phosphorous and smoke rounds. Arthur Sinclair
was killed when the landing craft he was in,
LST-422, was sunk by attacking German
forces off the coast of Italy on January 26, 1944.
Salvatore
Sapio, and
several of the other
local men assigned to the 83rd Chemical Battalion were also lost in the
rough seas, including Lester Dyer,
james parks, and
William
Phenegar, all from Camden. Also lost were
Stanley
Pokorsky of Delaware Township (Cherry Hill), and
Edwin
Johnson from Magnolia.
The death of Arthur
Sinclair was reported in the March 23, 1944 and September 19, 1944 editions of the
Camden Courier-Post. He was 26 when he was lost. Arthur Sinclair was survived by his
widowed mother, Katherine Sinclair,
who worked for a local coffee firm, and his brother Warren, then
training as an aerial gunner at March Field CA.
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