260380 2nd Lt. Wilfred Arthur Richards British Army 28th (1st Artists Rifles) Btn. London Regiment On 31st August 1914, my father Wilfred Richards, who'd been born in South Glamorgan but was now working in London, presented himself at Dukes Road in Euston to sign up to four years’ service in the Territorial Force. He was joining the 28th Battalion of the London Regiment (Artists Rifles) as Private No. 1855. He was 21 years and 8 months old. His profession was recorded as Clerk with Wilson and Sons, and he lived in Hendon. His previous military experience was that he had belonged to the Llandovery School Corps. He had never been rejected as unfit for the Military and he listed himself as ‘Church of England’.
His battalion left for France on 31 December 1914, and he arrived at St. Omer some days later where others from the Artists Rifles joined them in motor omnibuses. He transferred to the 1st Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers in June
The rest of his war story is one of luck. He served on the front with the 1st RWF from June to September 1915, just after the Battalion had suffered severe losses at the Battle of Festubert, and then he was invalided home on the eve of the Battle of Loos. He spent the rest of the war doing light duties at home and finished the war with the 7th York and Lancs Regiment as Captain. He had long recurrences of fever throughout the war.
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