| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Richard was born in Beverley in 1893 the son of Thomas and Eliza Straker, a blacksmith working in the shipyard, the family lived in Spencer Street and then Laundress Lane. In 1911 aged 17, Richard was working as a driller.
Richard joined the Coldstream Guards in 1913, consequently, when war broke out on 4 Aug 1914, Richard was amongst the first to set foot in France, arriving on 12 Aug 1914. His battalion immediately became embroiled in the first battle fought by the British Army against the Germans on the Western Front, the Battle of Mons. The Coldstream Guards remained on the Western Front for the whole of the war, becoming part of the well respected Guards Division. Richard would have seen action at the battle of Loos and the 1916 and 1917 Battles of the Somme. From newspaper reports we know Richard was wounded twice and in hospital but then returned to his Regiment.
On a third occasion, on 1 Dec 1917, Richard was not so fortunate and although originally reported as wounded and missing, he had in fact died on that day, around Cambrai. Richard was 24 when he died, he has no known grave but he is remembered on the Cambrai Memorial to the Missing at Louveral, France and on a number of memorials in Beverley.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |