Name
Nelson Alfred Milton Riddle (DCM)
1877
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
12/10/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
3/7646
Bedfordshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Distinguished Conduct Medal
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 2 C.
France
Headstone Inscription
He has no Headstone. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing in France.
UK & Other Memorials
St Matthew’s Church Memorial, Oxhey, Oxhey, Herts, War Memorial, Watford Borough Roll of Honour, Hastings Sussex, War Memorial. St Leonard’s on Sea Memorial, Hastings, Sussex
Pre War
Nelson Alfred Milton Riddle was born in Hastings, Sussex in 1877 and baptised on 28th March 1877, at All Saints Church Hastings. He was the son of John Milton and Eliza Julia Anne Riddle. He was brought up by his mother and grandparents in Hastings.
The 1881 & 1891 Census record Nelson living with his grandparents in Hastings, Sussex.
Nelson enlisted in the Royal Navy for 12 years on 18th January 1898, with the service number 286842, at the time of the 1901 census he was aged 24 and in Sydney, Australia, aboard the Royal Naval vessel, HMS Royal Arthur, which served as the flagship of the Australian Station and provided escort for the Royal Yacht Ophir carrying the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (the future King George V and Queen Mary) to Australia to open the new Federal Parliament in 1901.
In 1905 Nelson Riddle married Elizabeth Tillyard in the Uxbridge, Middlesex District. He left the Royal Navy on 17th January 1910, on completion of his 12 years’ service. The 1911 Census records Nelson and Elizabeth living at 119 Vicarage Road, Watford. His occupation is given as a Labourer. There were no children recorded but they had one child later, and they had one boarder.
Wartime Service
In August 1914 he attested at Watford for the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment and landed in France on 8 November 1914, as Private 3/7646 with the 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment.
He was awarded the DCM for bravery as a non-commissioner officer, while participating in the Battle of Festubert. The London Gazette supplement notification of the award of DCM was 14th January 1916 and citation 11th March 1916. The Citation for DCM reads: ‘For conspicuous gallantry. After his non-commissioned officers had all been put out of action, he took charge of the platoon and led it to the attack with bravery and judgement.’
Nelson was killed in Action on 12 October 1916, during an unsuccessful attack on Grid Trench near Eaucourt I’abbaye, France. (Part of the Battle of Le Transloy). He is remembered with honour at Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, Pier and Face 2C. He is commemorated on the memorial at St Matthew’s Church, Oxhey in Hertfordshire and on the Hastings and St Leonard’s War Memorial.
Additional Information
The value of his effects were £23-0s-10d, Pay Owing and £9, War Gratuity, which went to his widow Elizabeth. His widow Elizabeth was awarded a widows pension of 13/9 per week. Her address was given as 105 Rushton Avenue, Watford, Herts. His Royal Navy service record for 1898 to 1910 was found. There is an article about Nelson in the West Herts and Watford Observer dated 25 September 1915; the caption to a photograph in the Watford Illustrated dated 25 January 1916; and another article in the Observer dated 18 November 1916.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild, Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
