Richard Sturdy was from Kent born in Seal near Sevenoaks in 1889, the third child of Richard and Rosa and their only boy. Richard had four sisters Rosa, Nellie, Lilly and the youngest Alice, who was born a year before their father died in 1896.

Richard’s mother Rosa was working as a domestic charwoman by 1901 to support her family and shortly afterwards met her second husband, Joseph Ruby a servant at nearby ‘Wildernesse’, the home of the 2nd Baron Hillingdon, banker Charles Henry Mills.

Joseph and Ruby married in 1905 and moved to 17 Pullar Road, Boxmoor in 1907. By this time the young Richard had begun his apprenticeship as a butcher. He was to gain two additional siblings when his step-brothers Joseph and John were born in 1906 and 1908.

The 1911 Census records the Sturdy family living at 11 Fishery Cottages, Fishery Road, Boxmoor. It appears they are living in reduced circumstances as they occupy two rooms in this small cottage and share the accommodation with another family. Tragically, four other young men from this little row of cottages were killed in the Great War.

At the time of the census, Richard is boarding at 18 Queen Street, Colchester and he is recorded as a regular soldier. He had given up the butchery trade when he enlisted with the 16th (The Queen’s) Lancers in Devizes, Wiltshire on 7th November 1910 shortly after his twenty-first birthday.

The 16th Lancers was part of the Household Cavalry and Cavalry of the Line assigned to the 3rd Cavalry Brigade. This brigade was a peacetime formation of the British Army, based in the Irish Command and at the outbreak of war it was at The Curragh in Ireland.

The ‘Scarlet Lancers’ as it was nicknamed would see action from August 1914 to the end of the Great War. Also of note during the war was the appointment of Field Marshal Sir William Robertson as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS). Robertson had joined the 16th Lancers as a Trooper and rose through the ranks of the Regiment to be a Troop Sergeant Major. He is the only enlisted soldier ever to have reached the rank of Field Marshal.

Richard disembarked in France with his Regiment on 17th August 1914 as part of 3rd Cavalry Brigade. The brigade took part in many actions, notably the Battle of Mons and the Battle of Le Cateau. In September 1914, it joined the formerly independent 5th Cavalry Brigade underBrigadier-General Hubert Gough and took part in the First Battle of the Aisne between the 12th and 15th September. Finally, Gough's Command was redesignated as 2nd Cavalry Division where It remained until the end of the war.

The division took part in the First Battle of Ypres, notably the battle of Gheluvelt and it was shortly after this engagement and during the build up to the Battle of Nonne Bosschen that Richard was killed. A series of German attacks on the Allied flanks from the 5th to the 9th November resulted in many casualties and it was on the first day of these attacks that Richard fell on Thursday, 5th November 1914.

He is Remembered with Honour on Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial

Richard was 25 years old when he was killed in action.

He was eligible for the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.