Alfred Joseph Richards

The Gallipoli Hero of the Lancashire Fusiliers At dawn on 25 April 1915, Sergeant Alfred Joseph Richards stepped from a landing boat onto W Beach at Gallipoli and into a storm of machine-gun fire. Before that morning was over, the Lancashire Fusiliers had suffered terrible losses, Richards had taken part in one of the most celebrated assaults of the Gallipoli campaign, and his courage would earn him the Victoria Cross. His story became inseparable from the legend remembered as the "Six VCs Before Breakfast." The Gazette Alfred Joseph Richards was born at the garrison hospital in Plymouth, Devon, on 21 June 1879, the son of Charles and Bridget Richards. Military service was already part of his family life, as his father had served in the Lancashire Regiment. Alfred followed the same path while still a teenager, joining the Lancashire Fusiliers in 1895 and beginning his career as a bandboy. His early Army service took him far beyond Britain, including service connected with Ireland, Crete, Malta, Gibraltar, Egypt and India. By the First World War he was No. 1293 Sergeant Alfred Richards of the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, an experienced regular soldier about to face the defining moment of his life. Lancashire Fusiliers That moment came during the Gallipoli landings at Cape Helles. On 25 April 1915, the 1st Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers was ordered ashore at W Beach. The beach was heavily defended with wire entanglements and concealed Turkish machine guns. As the boats approached and the soldiers attempted to land, concentrated fire tore through the attacking companies. Men were killed and wounded before they could properly establish themselves on the shore. Yet the survivors continued forward, cutting through the wire and fighting their way towards the cliffs overlooking the beach. The Gazette Richards was at the heart of that action. His Victoria Cross was announced in The London Gazette, Issue 29273, dated 24 August 1915. The official notice named "No. 1293 Serjeant Alfred Richards, 1st Battalion, The Lancashire Fusiliers" and recorded the award for the landing of 25 April. The citation described how the battalion encountered devastating machine-gun fire, how the surviving troops rushed the wire despite that fire, and how the cliffs were eventually gained and held. Richards, Captain Richard Raymond Willis and Private William Keneally were selected by their comrades for what the Gazette described as acts of exceptional bravery and devotion to duty. The Gazette What makes Richards's Victoria Cross particularly remarkable is the way it was awarded. Under the provisions then governing collective acts of gallantry, men who had shared in an exceptional action could select comrades whom they believed had distinguished themselves above all others. Richards was the non-commissioned officer chosen from among the Lancashire Fusiliers who survived the assault. Ultimately six men of the battalion received the Victoria Cross for the landing, creating the enduring story of the "Six VCs Before Breakfast." Plymouth City Council The victory on W Beach came at a terrible personal cost. Richards was severely wounded during the fighting. His injuries were so serious that his right leg was amputated above the knee approximately a month later. His active Army career ended when he was discharged on 31 July 1915, only a few months after the action that had made him one of the most famous soldiers of his regiment. Plymouth City Council But losing a leg did not end Richards's connection with military service. During the Second World War, more than two decades after Gallipoli, Richards returned to uniform with the Home Guard, serving as a Provost Sergeant. It was an extraordinary second chapter for a man whose First World War wounds had already resulted in his discharge from the Regular Army. Plymouth City Council His complete surviving medal group reflects both his long military association and the different stages of his life. In addition to the Victoria Cross, Richards's group includes the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal 1914-1920, Victory Medal 1914-1919, Defence Medal 1939-1945, King George VI Coronation Medal 1937, and the Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. The First World War campaign medals are named to him as 1293 Sjt. A. Richards, Lancashire Fusiliers, while the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal is also recipient-named. The documented Defence Medal was accompanied by an issue box addressed to Richards at Southfields, Wandsworth. Lancashire Fusiliers There was also a life beyond the battlefield. In 1916 Richards married Dora Coombs, a nurse who had cared for him while he recovered from his wounds. They settled in Wandsworth and had a son, Harold. Richards remained closely associated with his old regiment and with organizations connected to former and disabled servicemen. Plymouth City Council Sergeant Alfred Joseph Richards VC died at Southfields, London, on 21 May 1953, aged 73. He was buried at Putney Vale Cemetery, where he rests with Dora. His connection with Plymouth has also endured, and his name remains part of the city's remembrance of its First World War Victoria Cross recipients. Plymouth City Council Richards's story is powerful not simply because he possessed the Victoria Cross, but because of what stood behind it. He began as a teenage bandboy, became a professional soldier, crossed the world with the Lancashire Fusiliers, survived the murderous landing at W Beach, lost a leg as a consequence of the fighting, and later returned to military service with the Home Guard. On 25 April 1915, amid wire, machine-gun fire and catastrophic casualties at Gallipoli, his comrades judged that Sergeant Alfred Joseph Richards had been one of the bravest among them. More than a century later, that judgment remains preserved in the official record of the Victoria Cross. The Gazette