CAPTAIN RICHARD FREDERICK REYNOLDS, 15th BATTALION HAMPSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 2nd OCTOBER 1918, AGED 30 YEARS.


CAPTAIN RICHARD FREDERICK REYNOLDS, 15th BATTALION HAMPSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 2nd OCTOBER 1918, AGED 30 YEARS.




Richard Frederick Reynolds, always known as Fred, was born on the 8th December 1887, although exactly where is unclear. His mother said that he was born in Ilkley but his birth was registered in Leeds.  His father Richard Freshfield Reynolds (also known as Fred) was a noted Quaker scientist and industrialist who owned the firm of Reynolds and Branson in Leeds. The company manufactured pharmaceutical chemicals as well surgical equipment and medical instruments. Indeed the company was one of the forerunners in developing X-ray photography. His mother Dora meanwhile came from a family of noted artists and portrait painters. She was herself an accomplished painter who had exhibited at the Royal Academy; however, she was also a famous author of fiction who wrote over forty novels.

The Reynolds family lived in a large house on Crossbeck Road and also owned another sizable home on Shaw Lane in Headingly, Leeds. Fred, the oldest of three children, was sent away to boarding school at an early age, firstly at Wooton Court School in Kent and then to Clifton College, a famous Public School in Bristol. His talents were clearly on the artistic side and upon leaving school he went to study painting with the famous artist Stanhope Forbes who was part of the artist colony at Newlyn in Cornwall.

It was in 1907 that tragedy struck the family, when Fred’s father suffered a fall in Ilkley. A minor fracture resulted in serious complications and he died aged just 47. Dora Reynolds response was to leave Ilkley and move to the Llanfair on the welsh coast in Merionethshire where she would continue her prodigious output of novels.

In August 1914 Fred enlisted into the mounted section of the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps which took men from public school backgrounds and prepared them for commissions. On completion of his training Fred duly obtained a commission into the 1st Hampshire Yeomanry a Territorial Army cavalry regiment. At the beginning of the war the regiment remained on the south coast of England guarding naval facilities in around Portsmouth. However, in the spring of 1916 the regiment moved across the Channel where its squadrons were split up and sent to different cavalry units. Fred and his squadron were stationed behind the front line and effectively became traffic police ensuring the safe and efficient movement of men and materials from depots to the trenches.

During the summer of 1917 the British High Command began to question the need for a large force of cavalry whose value in trench warfare was strictly limited, and with the shortage of men for the infantry began to train mounted troops for use in the trenches. The 1st Hampshire Yeomanry were ‘dismounted’ and after retraining assigned to the 15th Battalion Hampshire regiment. In November 1917 Fred and the rest of the battalion were sent to Italy to help bolster the Italian Army which was involved in heavy fighting again the Austrians and Germans.

The Hampshire’s returned to the Western Front in early march 1918 and Fred seems to have been attached to the Army Service Corps for several months. The 15th Hampshires managed to avoid the worst of the fighting during the Spring and Summer offensives and by September were positioned just south of Ypres. Involved in heavy fighting early in the month the battalion needed reinforcing to bring it back to strength and Fred seems to have returned with the rank of Captain in command of one of the companies. On the 2nd of October the battalion made an attack near to the village of Gheluwe which began at 5.30 in the morning. Fred and his company moved behind a creeping barrage provided by British Artillery and entered the enemy lines. As they encountered German machine gun posts casualties began to mount and several men hit including Fred who was killed.

Today Captain Richard Frederick Reynolds lies in the Perth (China Wall) British Military Cemetery.



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