Arthur Herbert Lindsay Richardson

Arthur Herbert Lindsay Richardson VC (23 September 1872 to 15 December 1932) was an English-born Canadian soldier and North-West Mounted Police officer who became the first member of a Canadian unit to be awarded the Victoria Cross. Born at Southport, Lancashire, he was apprenticed to a dentist in Liverpool before emigrating to Canada in 1891. After spending time in Manitoba and working as a rancher, he joined the North-West Mounted Police on 7 May 1894 as Regimental No. 3058 and was posted to Battleford, then in the North-West Territories. His birth year is sometimes given as 1873 in modern Canadian government sources, but the parish register records his baptism at Holy Trinity, Southport, on 22 February 1873, making a September 1873 birth impossible and supporting the established 23 September 1872 date.

When the South African War began, Richardson obtained leave from the Mounted Police to serve with the newly raised Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians). Contemporary Strathcona routine orders identify him as Regimental No. 46, not No. 182, and record that he attested at Chapleau on 14 February 1900, initially appearing as an acting corporal in A Squadron, Troop 2. By July he held the rank of sergeant. The regiment sailed for South Africa in March 1900 and was employed principally in mounted scouting and reconnaissance operations.

On 5 July 1900, at Wolve Spruit near Standerton, Richardson performed the act for which he received the Victoria Cross. A party of only 38 men of Lord Strathcona's Horse had become closely engaged with a larger Boer force. When the Canadians were ordered to withdraw, Richardson turned back under heavy crossfire, reached a wounded trooper whose horse had been shot, lifted the man onto his own wounded horse and carried him out of danger. He was the first member of a Canadian unit to receive the Victoria Cross.

His award was published in The London Gazette on 14 September 1900 with the following citation:

"On the 5th July, 1900, at Wolve Spruit, about 15 miles north of Standerton, a party of Lord Strathcona's Corps, only 38 in number, came into contact, and was engaged at close quarters, with a force of 80 of the enemy. When the order to retire had been given, Sergeant Richardson rode back under a very heavy cross-fire and picked up a trooper whose horse had been shot and who was wounded in two places and rode with him out of fire. At the time when this act of gallantry was performed, Sergeant Richardson was within 300 yards of the enemy, and was himself riding a wounded horse."

Lord Strathcona's Horse left the front in January 1901 and reached London the following month, where King Edward VII personally presented members of the regiment with their South African campaign medals. Richardson subsequently received his Victoria Cross from King Edward VII at St James's Palace in 1901. Published accounts commonly place the investiture on 12 March 1901, but the original Court Circular entry has not yet been located during this review, so the exact day is deliberately omitted here rather than presented as fully verified.

Richardson resumed his career with the North-West Mounted Police. Although some modern biographies state that he returned only after the South African War ended in 1902, the official NWMP annual report establishes that he was already serving at Battleford as Sergeant Richardson, VC, when he left in May 1902 to join the Canadian Coronation contingent. This is important because it places him back on active police duty before the war formally ended on 31 May 1902.

The 1902 Coronation was a completely separate episode from his Victoria Cross investiture. After the original coronation arrangements were disrupted by King Edward VII's illness, Richardson was among the Canadian personnel ordered back to Britain for the rescheduled ceremonies. An official Department of Militia and Defence report lists Sgt. A. Richardson, V.C., N.W.M.P. among the detachment that sailed from Montreal on 25 July 1902. He took part in the royal escort for the Coronation on 9 August. On 11 August 1902, the contingent paraded in Buckingham Palace Gardens, where the Prince of Wales presented the troops with their Coronation Medals, after which King Edward VII addressed them. This provides primary documentary confirmation of Richardson's King Edward VII Coronation Medal and corrects the previous claim that it was presented together with his VC at St James's Palace.

Richardson continued with the Mounted Police and eventually attained the rank of sergeant-major. Poor health led him to purchase his discharge in 1907. He later returned to Liverpool, where he worked as a track-layer for the municipal tramway.

In the 1920s Richardson's name became associated with an extraordinary case of mistaken identity. Another man had for years represented himself as the Arthur Richardson who had received the Victoria Cross in South Africa and was accorded honours appropriate to a VC recipient. Official Canadian biographies repeat the story that the genuine Richardson was discovered in the impostor's funeral cortège. Liverpool research gives a different account, recording that Richardson came forward after newspaper reports surrounding the impostor's death. Because the precise circumstances are disputed, the safer historical formulation is that publicity surrounding the impostor brought the genuine Richardson back to public attention after years of relative obscurity.

Arthur Herbert Lindsay Richardson died in Liverpool on 15 December 1932, aged 60, and was buried in St James's Cemetery beside Liverpool Cathedral. His verified wearable honours were the Victoria Cross, Queen's South Africa Medal, and King Edward VII Coronation Medal. The present ownership and display location of his original Victoria Cross should not be stated in the biography until direct institutional confirmation is obtained, since published references variously associate the medal with Library and Archives Canada and the military museum collection in Calgary.