Albert James RICHARDS, Charfield

L/4975 Private (Trooper) Albert James Richards

9th (Queens Royal) Lancers

Died of wounds, aged 21, on 3 November 1914, whilst a prisoner of war.

Buried in Ixelles Cemetery, Brussels

Albert James Richards was born in Charfield in 1893. He was the son of George and Deborah Richards, who by the time of the 1911 Census had had seven children, six surviving by that time.

The family lived on Wotton Road and George was the village postmaster and Chairman of the Parish Council.

Bert Richards (he was known) was an apprentice tailor in 1911 and also spent time as a rural postman. Although his Army Service record has not survived he

reportedly enlisted in the Army in September 1913, having served previously with the Dursley Territorials.

He joined the 9th (Queens Royal) Lancers, a cavalry unit, where he had the rank of Trooper or Private. As part of the Regular Army he was sent with his unit to France in the second week of August 1914 and thereafter would have seen action resisting the German advance through

Belgium and France (known as the Retreat from Mons), before the tide turned and the British and French forces drove the German Army back north.

In October the front lines had settled around the town of Ypres and the 9th

Lancers were deployed near to the town of Messines. Bert Richards was reportedly safe until at least the 24 October. At dusk on 30 October the 9th Lancers took over the front line trenches, as dismounted cavalry and suffered heavy shelling all night, with frequent German attacks during the night and through the following day. They managed to hold on for 23 hours before being forced to withdraw having sustained 75% casualties amongst officers and 35% in other ranks. Their war diary notes that three men were posted as missing and it is likely that Trooper Richards was one.

He would have received initial medical treatment by the Germans before being sent to a hospital in Brussels. Here he died of his wounds on 3 November 1914, aged 21 and was buried in Ixelles Cemetery, Brussels.

His brothers, Charles, Harold and Griffith all served in the Great War and are named on the panels behind the village war memorial of those men of Charfield who served and survived.