Richard Watts
Date of birth: 1872
Date of death: 20.5.1918
Area: Knottingley
Regiment: York and Lancaster
Family information: Husband of Edith Marchant Watts nee Brownhill
Rank: Private
Service number: 23092
War Service
Private Richard Watts service no 23092 of the 6th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment died on 20th May 1918. He is buried in the Pernes British Cemetery.
The cemetery was not begun until April 1918 when the 1st and 4th Canadian Casualty Clearing Stations came to Pernes, driven back by the German advance. In May, the 6th and 22nd Clearing Stations arrived and in August they were joined by the 13th. Almost all the burials were made by these units.
Family Life
Richard was born in Fermoy, Cork, Ireland in 1872. His mother was Ellin and he had brothers John and Joseph.
He had served in the military prior to the First World War. Employed as a Farrier, he joined the Dublin Fusiliers on 6th August 1892 and served for 12 years until his discharge on 2nd August 1904. Of his 12 years’ service he served more than three years in the East Indies and more than five years in South Africa where he was awarded the South African Campaign medal.
Richard married Edith Marchant Brownhill in the second quarter of 1904 and this was registered at Aston, Warwickshire.
In the 1911 census he is shown as a labourer at Bone Mill, living with his wife and three children at Doncaster Road, Ferrybridge.