HOLMES

		Source
		CWGC	SDGW	Uttoxeter Advertiser	Other
Parents	William and Mary Holmes
Where born	Uttoxeter		Yes		2a, 2c, 7
When born	About 1881				2c
When born	About 1880				2a, 5
Address	With his sister-in-law in Church Street, Uttoxeter			8b	7
	Church Street, Uttoxeter			8b
	Pinfold Lane, Uttoxeter				2a
Spouse	Yes, but deceased by the time he was killed			8b	7
Children	A little girl			8b	7
Employment Before Joining up	Fitter at the Leighton Ironworks			8b	7
Employment Before Joining up	Leighton Ironworks, Uttoxeter			8a
Where enlisted	Uttoxeter		Yes
Regiment	North Staffordshire (Prince of Wales’s)	Yes	Yes
Unit	1^st/6^th Bn.	Yes	Yes		1
	1/6^th (T.F.) Bn				7
	“B” Company				1
Rank	Private	Yes	Yes	8b	1, 7
Service Number	2476	Yes	Yes		1, 7
Date of Death	1 July 1916	Yes	Yes	8b	7
Age at time of death	36			8b
Where Killed or died	France/Flanders: Somme – 1^st day (Gommecourt)
How he died	Killed in Action		Yes	8b	7
Location of Grave or Memorial	No known grave – he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial for the Missing; Pier and Face 14 B and 14 C.	Yes			6
Location of Grave or Memorial	Uttoxeter Town War Memorial				7
Awards

Before the war Richard was a fitter at the Leighton Ironworks, the precursor of the modern-day JCB company.

These sheds are all that remain of the original Leighton Ironworks.

His wife died⁷ in 1908, leaving him a little girl⁷ to bring-up, and he moved from Pinfold Lane^2a to live with his sister-in-law in Church Street. Presumably she took care of his little girl while he was at work.

Richard was a member of the Territorial Forces and went with his detachment of the North Staffordshire Regiment at the end of August 1914⁷, less than a month after the outbreak of war.

Heartbreakingly, with his death his little girl was orphaned. We do not know what happened to her, but we like to think that she will have been adopted by his sister-in-law.

According to his obituary in the Uttoxeter Advertiser^8b, Richard went through the fighting at Loos in October 1915 unscathed^{7, 8b}, but he died at Gommecourt on the first day of the Somme.

In common with so many others of his comrades who died at Gommecourt, Richard has no known grave and his name is recorded on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing.