Richard Gidley 1898 - 1916

Richard Gidley was born on August 11, 1898 and was killed on July 1, 1916 at the age of 19. He was a Private in the Devonshire Regiment.
Richard's life seems to have been difficult from the start. It began at his birth in the Union Workhouse in Okehampton, Devon, where his unmarried mother, Bessie Gidley, a servant, had gone to give birth to him. It seems likely that he never lived with his mother, as in 1901 he was boarded out with a local family, and in 1911 he was still a boarder with them. He may never have lived as a family with his older sister, Bessie, or his younger brother Reginald, for Bessie Gidley, a kitchen maid at the White Hart Hotel, Okehampton, had three illegitimate children in total. She was the tenth of eleven children of George Gidley, a cooper of Throwleigh, Devon, and his second wife Ann Howard. They were from the Winkleigh Gidley branch. Bessie may have died in 1906 in the Plymouth area, and Richard's grandmother, Ann Gidley, was living in Torquay with her youngest son in 1901 and 1911.
Richard seems to have joined up very early in the war. According to his Medal Rolls index card he arrived in France in May 1915. On July 1st 1916 he was "regarded dead", just one amongst the 57,000 casualties of the first day of the Battle of the Somme, for an advance of just one mile. He was awarded the 15 Star, the Victory and the British medals. He has no known grave, but is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial.