Name
Richard Charles Shoebridge
1894
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
11/06/1915
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Sapper
33047
Royal Engineers
B Coy.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
No medals Issued - Home Service Only
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
NORTON (ST. NICHOLAS) CHURCHYARD
South of Church.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
No Report
UK & Other Memorials
Letchworth Town Memorial, Church of St Nicholas Memorial, Norton
Pre War
Richard Charles Shoebridge was born in Camberwell, Surrey in 1894 to Richard Linnington Shoebridge, railway clerk, and Amelia Emily (nee Wells).
On the 1901 Census the family of parents, Dorothy May (born 1893), Richard C, Florence (born 1897), Millie (born 1897) and Henry (born 1901) were living at Clifford Road, Monken Hadley, Barnet, Herts.
On the 1911 Census the family of parents, Dorothy M (silk warper), Richard C (apprentice motor engineer), Florrie (silk winder), Millie (confectioner’s assistant), Henry, Vera (born 1906), Mollie (born 1908) and Gordon (born 1910) were living at 10, Eastholm Letchworth, Herts.
Wartime Service
No Service Record was found for Richard, he may have enlisted in the Bedfordshire Regiment as Private 2719 as a Territorial in the 5th Battalion about Sept 1914.
He transferred to the Royal Engineers in Jan 1915 and was training at their Barracks in Chatham when on 11 Jun 1915, in a party of other soldiers from 'B' Company, went for a swim in a local pool. He was last seen diving from a springboard but did not surface. His comrades rescued him and applied resuscitation but to no avail. The inquest recorded the verdict that he died from drowning and a fractured skull from hitting the bottom. He was given a Military Funeral by the Royal Engineers at Norton.( A full description is given in the Citizen, Letchworth of 18 Jun 1915.)
Reported from previous research that Richard had been a volunteer Private with 4th Volunteer Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment known as 4th East Surrey Regt Rifle Club ans also Private 4th East Surrey Regt. Rifle Club.
Additional Information
Son of Richard and Amelia Shoebridge, of 171, Baldock Rd., Letchworth, Herts. His sister Vera died aged 15 in 1921 and is buried in the same grave.
Richard grave (not CWGC) bears the inscription:
In Loving Memory of
SAPPER R. C. SHOEBRIDGE, B. CO. R.E.
DIED AT CHATHAM 11TH JUNE 1915 AGED 21 YEARS.
FOR THEE O DEAR, DEAR XX?
SAPPER R. C. SHOEBRIDGE, B. CO. R.E.
DIED AT CHATHAM 11TH JUNE 1915 AGED 21 YEARS.
FOR THEE O DEAR, DEAR XX?
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Dan Hill, Ellen Barnes, Jonty Wild
