Pte 30259 Thomas Theodore George Richmond

• Age: 26
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• K.I.A Saturday 1st July 1916
• Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
  Panel Ref: P&F1D8B &8 C.

30259 Private Thomas Theodore George RICHMOND, 18^th Battalion KLR.

Thomas was born in Toxteth, Liverpool in 1889 and was baptised on 25^th August 1889 at St John the Baptist Church, Toxteth, his parents then lived at 54 Pecksniff Street. He was the son of James Richmond and his wife Jane (nee Marshall) who married at St Athanasius Church in Kirkdale on 28th April 1887. He was one of four children, his siblings were; Francis, Annie and Ivy.

The 1891 Census shows that the family were living at 11 Page Street, Liverpool. Thomas is shown as being 1 year and 7 months old. His parents were running a Public House. His father is 33 years of age, born in Skerton, Lancaster and his mother is 25 years old and was born in Over Kellet, near Carnforth. His elder brother is Francis V. aged 3. Also present is his maternal aunt Isabella Marshall aged 21.   

His father died on the 11^th November 1898, aged 40, and was buried on the 15^th November at Kirkdale Cemetery, his address stated as 109 Rathbone Street. 

At the time Thomas enlisted in the army in the second week of July 1915 he was employed by the Manchester Ship Canal Company. He enlisted in Liverpool joining the 18th Battalion as Private 30259.

He sailed to France as part of a reinforcement draft on an unknown date in 1916.

He was killed in action at Montauban on 01^st July 1916, aged 26.

18^th Battalion Diary

At 6.30am the artillery commenced an intensive bombardment of the enemy’s trenches. Zero Hour – 7.30 am – the battalion commenced to leave their trenches and the attack commenced. The attack was pressed with great spirit and determination in spite of heavy shelling and machine gun enfilade fire which caused casualties amounting to 2/3rds of the strength of the Battalion in action. The whole system of German trenches including the Glatz Redoubt was captured without any deviation from the scheduled programme. Consolidated positions and made strong points for defence against possible counter attacks.

Graham Maddocks provides more detail concerning the events of the day:

As the first three waves began to move forward towards the German reserve line, known as Alt Trench and then on to the Glatz Redoubt itself, they suddenly came under enfilading fire from the left. This was from a machine gun which the Germans had sited at a strong point in Alt Trench. The gun itself was protected by a party of snipers and bombers, who, hidden in a rough hedge, were dug into a position in Alt Trench, at its junction with a communication trench known as Alt Alley. These bombers and snipers were themselves protected by rifle fire from another communication trench, Train Alley which snaked back up the high ground and into Montauban itself. The machine gun fire was devastating and it is certain that nearly of the Battalion’s casualties that day were caused by that one gun.  

Lieutenant Colonel Edward Henry Trotter  wrote in the conclusion of his account of the days action:

I cannot speak to highly of the gallantry of the Officers and men. The men amply repaid the care and kindness of their Company Officers, who have always tried to lead and not to drive. As laid down in my first lecture to the Battalion when formed, in the words of Prince Kraft:

“Men follow their Officers not from fear, but from love of the Regiment where everything had always and at all times gone well with them”.    

Joe Devereux in his book A Singular Day on the Somme gives the Casualty Breakdown for the 18^th Battalion as Killed in Action 7 Officers and 165 men and of those who died in consequence of the wounds 3 Officers and 19 men a total of 194 out of a total loss for the four Liverpool Pals Battalions of 257. 

His death was reported in the Liverpool Daily Post on Thursday 27th July 1916;

Private Thomas T. G. Richmond of the Liverpool “Pals.” who was 26 years of age, has been killed in France. He resided at 50 Aubury Street, Everton, and before joining the Army was employed by the Manchester Ship Canal Company. 

His death was also reported in the Liverpool Daily Post on 07th August 1916: 

The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916. 

On 01st August 1932 the Prince of Wales and the President of France inaugurated the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy. The inscription reads: “Here are recorded the names of officers and men of the British Armies who fell on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.”