4797 Rfm Richard Arthur Rendell, 1st Bn, Rifle Brigade

4797 Rifleman Richard Arthur Rendell of the 1st Battalion, Rifle Brigade, was killed in action on the 4th December 1914. He was a Somerset man, born in West Coker and enlisting at Somerset in September or October 1912.

Richard was just 19 years old when he died. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission notes that he was the son of Richard and Ann Rendell, of Manor Street, West Coker in Yeovil, and his medal index card records that he arrived in France on the 19th October 1914; a young Old Contemptible. He would have been entitled to the clasp for his 1914 Star but this appears not claimed for him.

Richard Rendell is buried in Rifle House Cemetery at Ploegsteert Wood in Belgium; one of 228 casualties at rest there. He was the only Rifle Brigade casualty on the 4th December 1914.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk (MIC)
Army Ancestry
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Soldiers Died in The Great War