(4) 1.1.1.5 Richard Harry Hill

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Richard was the last son to be apprenticed to a trade - a billiard table maker. He was a great cyclist and went on races timed for the early hours - rain or shine. His brother Charles went along as timekeeper.

He enlisted in the East Surreys at Kingston (Peckham was then in the county of Surrey) for the Great War and was sent abroad initially on carpentry duties.

The London National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918 (page 218 Vol XIII) records:

"After being employed on construction work in France and Gallipoli he joined the 8th East Surrey Regiment in March 1916 and after his training he was sent to France where he took part in several important operations. He was unfortunately killed in action at Thiepval on September 30 1916. He was entitled to the General Service & Victory medals"

The 8th E Surreys were a division of the 53rd Brigade and involved in the 1916 offensives at Thiepval and the Schwaben Redoubt. The fighting was fierce.

Thiepval was a village on a hill in France which gave observation to the Germans of events in the Albert Area

Of the 860 to 1000 Fusiliers who went into the action, 120 came out.

Ritchie is buried in Connaught Road Cemetery Thiepval Grave reference XI.D.I

Richie - Killed in action

The Battle for Thiepval Ridge and the Schwaben Redoubt

On the 26 September 1916 when the allies took Thiepval, the shelling had pounded the previously pleasant and peaceful place into a waste of churned up earth, tree stumps and shell holes filled with stagnant green water. A brick, left standing upon another was something to be noted. The winding trenches wrested from the Germans were knee deep in mud………….. Precisely at 12:35, the barrage started – heavy shrapnel firing so deafeningly that no-one could hear himself speaking and the first waves of the assault moved out and forward across No Man’s Land. The fighting was fierce and when the allies finally took Thiepval, they had moved the line a mere 250 yards.

The Schwaben Redoubt was a formidable system of German trenches outside the village of Thiepval. On the night of 29^th September 1916, the East Surrey’s relieved the Queen’s and prepared to attack on the afternoon of the 30^th. At dawn on the 30^th, the East Surreys were ferociously attacked after 10 minutes intense bombardment by three bombing parties of the enemy but they beat them off successfully

At 4:30pm, a heavy barrage was laid down, under cover of which the East Surreys and 2 platoons of the 7^th Buffs attacked and captured the whole of the line running from Points 27, 99, 69, 49, 39 and 19 but were at once heavily counter-attacked by the Germans and driven back. Richie was killed in this fighting.

Sources:

The 18^th Division in the Great War G H F Nichols

Connaught Road Cemetery, Thiepval - where Richie is buried

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