Born 9 June 1897 Brioude, France Died of the Effects of Gas 26 August 1918
Corporal S/14862 1/5th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders
Buried at Ligny
Born 9 June 1897 Brioude, France Died of the Effects of Gas 26 August 1918
Corporal S/14862 1/5th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders
Buried at Ligny St Flochel British Cemetery, Averdoingt
Henry Cecil Rickard, known as Cecil, was the youngest child of John Henry Rickard and Mary Annie Mitchell. The couple had married in 1886 at the Wesleyan Chapel at Bolingey.
John Rickard's job as a mining engineer took him to France, where all of the couple's six children were born. Sadly, two of the children died in infancy. Cecil, along with his brothers, was sent back to Cornwall to be educated. He attended Truro School and later obtained a first class certificate at the School of Metalliferous Mining in Camborne. His brothers, Thomas and Rene, also took up careers in mining.
Cecil enlisted on 5 July 1916. With his mining background, he might have been expected to become a sapper; instead, he became a gas instructor with the Seaforth Highlanders at the Cromarty Naval Base. In April 1918 Cecil was transferred to the 5th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders and was sent to the Western Front. Despite his training, he was gassed on 27 May 1918 and spent some time recovering at Le Treport Hospital. He wasn't alone; the Battalion diary records that 52 men were wounded or gassed around this time.
By 8 August he was well enough to rejoin his regiment, but his time back in the trenches was short. Once again, he was gassed, this time whilst holding the line at Arras. The War Diary for the 5th Seaforth Highlanders records for August 1918:
"On the 2Ist, the battalion again advanced and
captured anot