211349 Cpl. Alfred Reginald Richardson British Army 8th Btn Bedfordshire Regiment from:Bedford (d.20th Dec 1915) Albert Reginald Ricardson was 31 years old, he was my Great Uncle and he died in the field Flanders Ypres. Albert Left a wife Amy and 5 year old son Edward. Based on his service number, Albert enlisted very early in September 1914. This was during the huge rush to answer Kitchener’s famous ‘call to arms’ that created three new armies of 100,000 men each in September.
After being posted to the 8th Battalion, he trained around Brighton, Reigate and Blackdown, and was involved in building what were called the London Defences. He went to France on 30 August 1915, along with his battalion when they were mobilised for foreign service. His were one of the very few units to be engaged in the Battle of Loos in September, before his division had even been into the trenches. After a few months of trench warfare, Albert was killed during the Gas and artillery attack on his battalion’s section of trench north-east of Ypres. The bulk of the artillery was thrown at them 19 December so Albert was either killed in the shelling as it continued, or he died from wounds or gas the following day. This was also the first use of Phosgene gas in history, which was a particularly nasty and effective gas when first released. As he is remembered on the Menin Gate memorial, his body was either not found or his grave was lost during the fighting that continued in the area for 3 more years.
|