Arthur Michael Durrant, known as Michael, was born on Sunday, 29th September 1889 in West Ham London, the second child to parents Arthur Durrant and Alice Mabel Pelly. Arthur and Alice had four children in all; Lorna Milicent, Arthur Michael, Enid Mary and Dorothy Mary. Michael’s mother Alice was a great-grand-daughter of the prison reformer Elizabeth Fry and his father Arthur was a clergyman in the Church of England.

Sadly, for Arthur Snr., he outlived his wife, son and two youngest daughters. Michael’s youngest sister, the adventuress Lady Dorothy May Clayton East Clayton, died tragically in 1933 at the age of twenty-seven in a flying accident and she is generally thought to be the model for the character Katherine Clifton, in the book and film “The English Patient”. Michael’s father was installed as the Vicar of Holy Trinity Church in Leverstock Green, Hertfordshire in 1899 where he remained until his death thirty-six years later.

In 1901, twelve-year-old Michael was a boarder at Malvern College in Worcestershire, where he was a talented young artist leading him to study as an architect. He entered the firm of Moresmith & Durrant, Architects in the City of London where he trained, and soon specialised in church design and building. He designed St James’ Church in Watford Fields when he was only nineteen and was responsible for the refurbishment of Holy Trinity Church in Broadstairs, Kent in 1914.

Between 1910 and 1913 Michael served with the Sussex Yeomanry so on the outbreak of war, he immediately enlisted, attesting on the 29th August 1914 when he joined the Royal Fusiliers as a Private and was posted to the 10th Battalion. He later applied for a commission, which was confirmed on the 30th November and he was then posted to the 8th Battalion Loyal North Lancashire Regiment and sent to France.

Michael disembarked at Boulogne on the 4th December 1914 and shortly afterwards was attached to 171st Tunnelling Company Royal Engineers near Ploegsteert in Flanders. A year after his arrival on 23rd December 1915, he was the officer in charge of a mining party when an enemy tunnel and listening post was accidentally broken into and then destroyed.

An account of the incident was published in the London Gazette with the announcement of the award of the Military Cross for Michael's brave actions: "For conspicuous gallantry and resource near Frelinghein on 23rd December 1915. When a charge placed by our miners in a German gallery had only partially exploded and warned the enemy; Second Lieutenant Durrant, with two other officers, succeeded in placing a second charge which demolished the enemy's gallery. There was imminent danger throughout of the Germans exploding a mine. For several months Second Lieutenant Durrant has been carrying out dangerous work in almost constant contact with the enemy, and has set a fine example of coolness and determination." He was mentioned in dispatches by General Sir Douglas Haig.

On 2nd February 1916 Michael was officially transferred to the Royal Engineers and a month later was temporarily attached to the Controller of Mines for the 3rd Army. He was granted home leave and returned to London where he married his fiancée, Jemima Wilson at the church of St. George in Hanover Square. Jemima was from a wealthy society family descended from Edward Lascelles, 1st Earl of Harewood, whose huge fortune had derived in part from the slave trade. Following their wedding Michael returned to the Front and was never to see his wife again.

On 1st July 1916 he was promoted to the rank of Acting Captain, commanding a section of a Tunnelling Company and next day joined the newly arrived 257th Tunnelling Company attached to the 3rd Australian Tunnelling Company. Towards the end of the year the 257th was no longer tunnelling but instead deployed as a fighting unit and in early December, just north of ‘Winchester Crater’, Michael was killed in action during an enemy bombardment.

Michael died on Tuesday, 5th December 1916.

Jemima remarried in 1923.

His sad demise was reported in the Hemel Gazette shortly afterwards.

He was commemorated on a memorial at St Saviour’s Church in Pimlico, London close to where he had worked. Michael was also remembered on the Leverstock Green War memorial.

Michael is Remembered with Honour in Pont-Du-Hem Military Cemetery, La Gorgue, Nord, France where he is interred in Grave II.C.11.

He was 27 years old when he died.

Michael was entitled to the 1914–15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.