Name
Frederick John Richmond
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
10/09/1916
30
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
6901
London Regiment (London Scottish)
1/14th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 9 C and 13 C.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, Holy Saviour Church War Memorial, Radcliffe Rd., Hitchin, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin
Pre War
His grandparents came from Scotland and his great grandfather fought in ‘the thin red line’ in the Crimean War. His home was at 42, Dacre Road, Hitchin. He was unmarried.
Before joining the army he had been in the Boys' Brigade and in the Volunteers. He worked as a painter on the Great Northern Railway at Hitchin. He was a resident of Hitchin and enlisted there in February 1916.
Wartime Service
Frederick was given the Regimental Number 6901. He was posted to the 14th Battalion (County of London) London Scottish which was part of the 168th Brigade in the 56th (1st London) Division and sent to the front after a short training period.
The date of his death coincides with action on the 10th/11th September 1916 by his Battalion near the ‘Quadrilateral’ in the Somme sector immediately east of Ginchy. The Battalion had arrived in the vicinity of Leuze Wood before 11.00pm on the 9th September 1916 with casualties mounting due to shelling. They attacked at 00.15am on the 10th September in pitch darkness. They lost direction and were attacked by German units in their rear but they scattered them with the use of their bayonets. They tried to pick up their correct position but were unsuccessful in the thick mist and were nowhere near their objective. The enemy continued to hold the ‘Quadrilateral’.
He has no known grave and is remembered on Pier and Face 9C&13C of the great Thiepval Memorial to the Missing in France.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
