2nd Lieutenant Richard Powell Scholefield

• Age: 31
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: Cheshire Regiment 19th Btn
• Died on Tuesday 25th July 1916
• Commemorated at: La Neuville Brit Cem Corbie
  Panel Ref: I.D.63

The extract below gives a detailed account of the circumstances of Richard being wounded and was taken from Liverpool's Scroll of Fame:

One of the most steadfast defences of the 16th Cheshire in the Somme offensive is recalledwhen one speaks of the death of Second Lieutenant. Richard Powell Scholefield. He was a most courageous officer who did brave deeds himself, and inspired his men to follow his own splendid example. Sure of himself in all things he could be determined in all he undertook, though his manner and disposition were ever gentle and quiet.

It was this spirit of determination, so typical of a Britisher in a tight corner, that distinguished his work in middle of July, 1916, when he was helping in the defence of Waterlot Farm, in Picardy. It was a stubborn defence and it succeeded by reason of the fortitude, the bravery and the dauntless persistence which all ranks engaged in it displayed. Waterlot Farm had at all costs to be held, and held it was for two days and two nights, mainly because of the robust pluck of this officer and his platoon.

The Gerrmans, with an overwhelming superiority of numbers, came again and again. Not once but many times did their famous Brandenburg Division attack in massed formation, but each time was their Corps thrown back by the young heroes of Cheshire. From the British Higher Command the whole battalion received very great praise for their splendid achievement, which had ruined the enemy's plans, but it followed that it had cost them dearly. Sec-Lieut. Scholefield himself was hit, and seven days later, on the 25th of July, he succumbed without ever recovering consciousness--the passing of a noble-hearted Englishman. 

Colonel Browne Clayton, who was in command of the unit, has told that this young officer's platon would have followed him anywhere, and it is no empty sentiment to say that his loss is a huge blow. From the time he volunteered he had been actuated by the highest principles. For him a military career had no predispositions except so far as it enabled him to render his country a duty, and that duty indeed he fulfilled with all the enthusiasm, all the energy, all the talent that he possessed. Within a month of the outbreak of the war he had enlisted in the 19th King's (Liverpool Regiment). It was one of the "Pals" battalions, comprised of so many men with similar ideals and intellectual standing, and amongst these new brothers in arms he found kindred spirits.

Exactly a year and a week after his enrolment in the ranks - to be precise on the 11th of September, 1915- he was given his commission in the 17th Cheshire Regiment. January 29th, 1916, saw him drafted overseas, and transferred to the 16th Battalion, and it was with this unit that his fighting days, destined too be all to brief were spent.
Short indeed were the actual number of his fighting days, but they were busy ones, and crowded with achievement. It is now a matter of history that the original British forces had succeeeded in holding the German hordes at bay until such time as the new armies which were being built up and equipped with all speed were ready to take their place in the fighting line. And now that time had arrived when the British army  had grown into gigantic proportion, made up of men, who like Sec.-Lieutenant Scholefield, had left the comforts of home to take up the rough and tumble life of soldiering in a cause which they held to be so worthy. They had swelled the ranks, and for the first time after almost two years of fighting with their backs to the wall, the British were able to launch an attack on anything like an adequate scale, and began the operation- another long drawn out process- of gradually wearing down the enemy forces until final victory was assured. It was at the commencement of this gigantic struggle that Lieutenant Scholefield laid down his life. 
Sec.-Lieutenant Scholefield who died when thirty one years of age, was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ernest Scholefield, of Poulton Hey, Bromborough. He was an old boy of the Liverpool College, as well as of King William's College in the Isle of Man. Specialising in chemistry, he entered his fathers firm, Messrs, Powell & Scholfield, Ltd, of Liverpool. 
He was a thorough sportsman. Especially keen was he towards tennis and golf, in which latter he had won several trophies, and in all the activities he believed in "playing the game."  The Bromborough Golf Club regarded him as one of their most popular players. In politics he was a Conservative and a member of the Conservative Club, Dale Street, Liverpool.
Sec.-Lieut Scholefield was representative of that big body of business men who found no attraction in the conflict of arms merely on its adventurous side, but who yet offered their gifts as they offered their lives for the maintenance of world-wide liberty. 

Richard is commemorated on the following Memorials:

Roll of Honour and plaque located in St Andrew's Church, St Andrews Rd, Lower Bebington, Wirral

Lower Bebington's WW1  Roll of Honour

Lower Bebington Methodist Church, Bromborough Rd, Lower Bebington, Wirral

The Lyceum Club War Memorial, Minster House, Paradise Rd, Liverpool

King William's College War Memorial, King Williams College Chapel, A8, Castletown, Isle of Man IM9 1TP.

Soldiers Effects to his father Henry.

Probate was granted in 1916.