Richard Leonard Andrews
Memorial: Chipping Sodbury Town Cross - Broad Street
Regiment: East Surrey Regiment
Medals: British War Medal, Next of Kin Memorial Plaque 1914 - 1921, Victory Medal
Rank and number: Lance Corporal 29380
Parents: George and Mary Jane Andrews
Marital status: Single
Home address: High Street, Chipping Sodbury, Bristol
Date of birth: 1898
Place of birth: Chipping Sodbury, Bristol
Date of death: 06/08/1918
Buried/Commemorated at: Beacon Cemetery, Sailly-Laurette, Somme, France, grave 11G3
Age: 19
Further information:
8th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment, British Army
Close school friend of George Vizard and Percy Dash. Richard Leonard enlisted in Bristol and become a Lance Corporal in the British Army. He was then to fight with several Australian and other British Empire units, just before the Battle of Amiens was launched
This was picking up where the German Spring offensives had finally left off back in April 1918. Richard’s battalion of the East Surrey Regiment were battling in the summer heat above the northern reaches of the Somme, gaining much from the surprise element of their attack. Many of the soldiers from those Australian units, were to be buried alongside Richard in Beacon Cemetery
This cemetery at Sailly Laurette was named from a brick beacon on the summit of the ridge above the village. The cemetery, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, was expanded at the Armistice to contain 772 burials from WW1, 258 of them unidentified
Richard Leonard Andrews is remembered on the on the Chipping Sodbury Town Cross and on the Chipping Sodbury and District War Memorial Cottage Hospital board, now at Yate and District Heritage Centre under Chipping Sodbury
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
Alison Benton (2014) Remembered with Honour. Sprint Print, Yate. Forces War Records