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Edward Ernest Riddell
2067, Acting Corporal, Royal Army Medical Corps
Died, 3 March 1917, aged 40
Buried at Gezaincourt Communal Cemetery Extension, France
CWGC registered (Son of Francis Riddell, of Yoxall, Staffs; husband of Alice Riddell, of Scotland St, Ellesmere, Salop)
UNTIL THE DAY DAWNS. ‘TIS BUT A STREAM DIVIDES US ON EITHER SIDE THE LAND IS GOD’S.
Edward Ernest Riddell was born on December 31 1876 at Yoxall, Staffordshire. He had a farming background because the Census for 1881 records him aged four living at Yoxall at the home of his grandmother who is described as a farmer of 30 acres and his father, Francis Riddell, described as a farmer’s son. Edward’s mother, Fanny (née Stackhouse) and his sister Mary (3) were staying with Fanny’s mother at Walsall. Ten years later, Edward (14) and his parents were living at “Bryniau”, Llanrhos, Francis and Edward being described as farmer and scholar respectively. On 25 February 1905, Edward married Alice Thompson at Llanrhos Parish Church. He received a certificate of Sanitary Science, as Applied to Buildings and Public Works in 1909. He took up employment with the Wath upon Dearne Urban District Council and the Census for 1911 records him boarding in the town; his wife Alice was living at the house of her sister at “Selattyn”, Queens Road, Llandudno and his parents had retired to Uttoxeter.
Edward Riddell’s service record no longer exists. What documents do exist state that he enlisted at Chelsea, gave his address as Wath upon Dearne and that he disembarked in France on 24 December 1914. When he died in France on 3 March 1917, he was an acting corporal in the Royal Army Medical Corps, Territorial Force, specifically the 11th Sanitary Section of the 1/2nd London Sanitary Company, his service number being 2067. A sanitary section was added to each army division in early 1915, its job to maintain clean water supplies, cooking facilities and billets, de-lousing stations and similar facilities.
The cause of Edward Riddell’s death is unknown but it was neither due to being killed in action nor of wounds. According to the National Probate Calendar, he died aged 40 at the 29th Casualty Clearing Station which at the time was at Gezaincourt in the Somme Department, Picardy. He was buried at the nearby Gezaincourt Communal Cemetery Extension.
After the war, after the war Alice Riddell lived in Ellesmere, Shropshire. She died in 1951.
Known memorials:
- Ellesmere, Shropshire War Memorial
- Wath upon Dearne War Memorial
- Llandudno Roll of Honour
- Llandudno War Memorial
- Memorial Chapel, Holy Trinity Church, Llandudno
- Llanrhos Parish War Memorial, All Saints’ Church, Deganwy
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