Private, 1st Battalion East Lancashire Regiment, service no. 19992.
Early life:
Richard was born in Fleetwood, Lancashire in 1891 to parents William Henry and Annie Baker.
His mother died in 1894 when he was just three. His father remarried to Susannah Chatburn in 1898 and in 1901 the family were living at ‘Bold Venture’ in Chatburn. He had a brother, James and a sister, Jane Alice. Richard was nine years old and his father was a carter at a limestone quarry. At the age of 19 in the 1911 census he was working as a farm labourer for Ralph and Emma Holden, living at Dutton, near Longridge, Clitheroe, Lancashire. At some point he was resident at 6, Oldfield Lane, Oakworth, near Keighley, Yorkshire and was probably working on one of the farms nearby.
War service:
He enlisted in September 1914 at Southport, Lancashire with the third Battalion East Lancashire Regiment and entered France on May 27 1915, then to the 1st Battalion.
WO-95/1498/1/3:
War diary for the 1st Battalion East Lancashire Regiment.
August 8. Yser Canal. Trenches.
The 1st Battalion East Lancashire Regiment were relieving the 1st Battalion Hampshire Regiment when the Germans released poison gas upon our front line trenches. The troops responded to the sound of the gas alarms by donning their gas hoods but this made it difficult to carry out the relief so for the most part they stayed put. This difficulty was compounded by heavy and indiscriminate bombardments from the German artillery accompanied by heavy machine gun and rifle fire. The battalions were ordered to wait it out and used Lewis guns to repel an attempted German thirty man raid on our trenches. Eventually the bombardments ceased and quiet returned. There were several men killed, or injured by the gas and these were evacuated. Preliminary estimates of casualties were: 5 men killed, 5 gassed and 15 wounded.
Richard would have been one of the gassed men and he died the next day in number 11 Field Ambulance. He was buried in grave 10, row B, plot III of Essex Farm Cemetery.
Keighley News dated Saturday 2nd September 1916:
Private Richard Baker (25), of the East Lancashire Regiment, and of 6, Oldfield, Oakworth, near Keighley, died on August 9 of the effects of gas. Official intimation to that effect has been received from the Infantry Record Office, Preston. Mr W. H. Jeffries, of the Army and Navy Board of the four denominations, in a letter to Mrs Baker, said: “I did not know your son well, but the little I did know of him led me to form a high opinion of him. Being attached to the regiment, I often saw him when passing round, and he always appeared the same – a true soldier, cheerful and ready. He was doing his duty faithfully when he met his death. It will be some comfort to you to know that he suffered very little. We buried him in our own British cemetery just behind the lines, and the regiment has erected a cross at the head of the grave where he lies beside his gallant comrades. Private Baker was formerly employed at Dutton, and joined the Army in September, 1914, and went to France eighteen months ago.
Post war:
He was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal for his war service.
He is not named on any local war memorial in the Keighley and Worth Valley area.
Richard’s mother Susannah was the sole legatee in his will and she received £12 6s 10d from his Army account on 6th November 1916, plus a war gratuity of £5 10s on 16th September 1919. A further payment of £2 10s was paid to her on 3rd December 1919.
She received a Dependant’s War Pension amount of 5 shillings per week for life, beginning on 19th November 1920.
In the 1921 census his mother Susannah was living at 4, Oldfield which is just next door to where Richard was living in the 1911 census, these small terraced cottages were probably all rented out to local farm employees at the time.
Susannah also stated that she was a widow at that time, meaning that Richard’s father William had already died.
In the 1939 Register Susannah was still living at 4, Oldfield Lane and was a retired woollen weaver. She died in 1945 aged 82 and was buried on 13th March 1945 in Christ Church graveyard in Oakworth. Her address at the time of her death was at 4, Sugden Almshouses on Oakworth Road.
Information sources:
Lancashire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1936.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915.
Lancashire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1911.
England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915.
1901 England Census.
1911 England Census.
WWI War Diaries (France, Belgium and Germany), 1914-1920.
WO-95/1498/1: 1 Battalion East Lancashire Regiment (1914 Aug – 1918 Feb).
Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919.
Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929.
WWI Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920.
World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923.
1921 England Census.
1939 England and Wales Register.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007.
West Yorkshire, England, Electoral Registers.
