Early Life :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

The Battle of the Somme 1st July - 18th November 1916 is inevitably characterised by the appalling casualties (60,000) on the first day, July 1st 1916. Having failed to break through the German lines in force, and also failed to maximise opportunities where success was achieved, the battle became a series of attritional assaults on well defended defence in depth. The battle continued officially until 18th November 1916 costing almost 500,000 British casualties. German casualties were about the same, and French about 200,000. The Somme could not be counted a success in terms of ground gained or the cost, but it had a strategic impact as it marked the start of the decline of the German Army. Never again would it be as effective whilst the British Army, learning from its experience eventually grew stronger to become a war winning army. The German High Command recognised that it could never again fight another Somme, a view that advanced the decision to invoke unrestricted submarine warfare in an attempt to starve Britain of food and material, and in doing so accelerated the United States declaration of war thus guaranteeing the eventual outcome. 287 Brethren were killed on the Somme in 1916.

Detail :

G/17552 Lance Sergeant Edward Kelsey Richards 2nd Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment

A full biography written by J.M. Steeples is available via Whitfield Parish Council Website, a summary of which follows:

"Edward Kelsey Richards was born in 1885, the son of Frederick and Jane Richards of Coldred. His father was a farmer, living at Newsole Farm, previously farmed by his grandfather, Kelsey Richards. By 1901, the family had moved to Bewsbury Cross Farm in Whitfield and Edward was attending Sandwich School as a boarder. On completing his education Edward assisted his father on the farm. Edward was initially in the Royal East Kent Yeomanry. The Yeomanry was formed for local defence and its members were not obliged to serve overseas, although they had the right to if they so wished. There are no records remaining to tell when Edward was posted to the British Expeditionary Force in France but it may have been on 23rd August 1916, when a draft of 128 men, including 97 from the Royal East Kent Yeomanry Reserve joined the 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment at Albert, following losses incurred during the Battle of the Somme.

After a period of training the battalion went to the front line, to the right of High Wood. For two days they were under constant enemy shelling before being relieved. On 7th September the 2nd Sussex moved back to the trenches. At 1645hrs on 9th September they advanced towards their objective, a portion of trench known as ‘Wood Lane’. Under heavy machine gun and artillery fire ‘C’ and ‘D’ Companies led the attack. Despite ‘C’ Company suffering heavily from firing from High Wood, the objective was achieved, allowing ‘A’ Company to push on beyond the captured line. The battalion to the left was driven back by the intense fire leaving the 2nd Sussex left flank exposed. A defensive flank was dug to connect the captured line to the former front line and the 2nd Sussex defended their new position until relieved late on 10th September, having incurred 262 casualties.

Lance Serjeant Edward Kelsey Richards was amongst those wounded and was transferred to a Casualty Clearing Station at Heilly, near Mericourt l’Abbe. He died on 11th September 1916. He was buried at the Heilly Station Cemetery and shares a grave with Private James Haley, who died on the same day. His parents erected a plaque to his memory in St Peter’s Church, Whitfield."

Masonic :

Listed as a 27 year old farmer at the time of initiation in 1913.

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley