| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
David Richard English was born in Beverley 8 Mar 1893 and baptised at St Mary’s Church on 2 Apr 1893. At that time his parents Robert Alfred English and Annie Elizabeth English were living in Norwood but late moved to Leconfield and then back to Beverley. Robert was a wheelwright and joiner. Richard was the eldest of seven children and their only son. All of his siblings were to live and marry locally; they all attended St Nicholas’ School but it is not known if Richard did so. In the 1911 census he is recorded as working for East Riding County Council as a labourer with one of the two steamrollers that were used in road building and repair.
Richard enlisted in the army in the earlier stages of the war and was already a serving soldier when he was married in early 1915 at Acomb in York. His new wife was Rose Grainger, born 1895, was the daughter of a local house decorator. Rose worked as a factory girl. They had two children Norman Richard born 1915 and Phyllis born 1919. Their initial address was 15 Beaconsfield Street, Acomb.
Richard joined the 59th Siege Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery as a gunner, later promoted to bombardier. He arrived in France on 5 Mar 1915 and although his army papers are missing it is known that the 59th served there for the duration of the war. On 7 Jul 1917 Richard was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, formally announced in the London Gazette of 20 Jul 1917. He was awarded the War and Victory Medals as well as the 1914-15 Star but in addition he was awarded the French Croix de Guerre in October 1918 for an unknown “act of bravery in the field”. The citation for this award is missing.
After the war Richard worked as a policeman on the LNER railway. In 1939 he was living in Darlington. He died in 1979 in Worksop, Nottinghamshire. His wife died in 1981. He is commemorated on the Holme Church Lane Street Shrine in Beverley.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |