Corporal Alfred John Arthur Killough ("Arthur") was born in Regina, Saskatchewan on January 12th, 1896. After training with the 2nd Contingent in Victoria, he enlisted in November 1914 in Quebec with the 23rd Battalion, Canadian Infantry. Killough was serving in France with the 3rd Battalion at the time of his death on September 4, 1916, when a shell explosion caused a trench cave-in. He is buried in the Sunken Road Cemetery, Contalmaison, Somme, France.

The oldest of 8 siblings, most of the letters in the collection were written to and from Arthur's family from their home on the Merryfield Fruit Ranch in Castlegar, British Columbia:
Capt. Joseph Arthur Killough - father
Lillian Emma Killough - mother
May, Annie, Gwen, Myrtle & "Baby" - sisters
Joe & Harry - brothers
"Auntie" F.A. Clark 

The collection currently consists of nineteen letters, a diary of his voyage overseas, photographs, and other misc. items. Many of the early letters in the Killough collection are unusual in that the majority of CLIP's war letters (and especially those in most WWI collections) were written by service members and then sent home to family & friends.  In the Killough letters we get an uncommon glimpse at the other side of the story – letters written to a soldier by his family and then sent to Arthur while he was still in training here in Canada. How and when these letters were returned to his family in Castlegar is unknown.

Corporal Killough is also remembered online through the Touchstones Nelson Museum of Art and History "First World War Kootenay Soldiers" online photo album.