Pte Richard Flaxon Andrews (1875 – 1916)
Before the war, recruits into the Army had to be aged between 18 and 38, with those of a younger age disallowed from serving overseas until 19. These guidelines continued after the start of the war in August 1914; however, men who had previously served in the forces could rejoin up to the age of 45. Richard van Emden wrote a fantastic book about teenage boys who lied about their age and found themselves at the front; however, equally, there were men whose years had surpassed the upper limit but still wanted to serve their country, so like their younger counterparts, they were also somewhat more flexible with the truth.
Of all the men from the parish who saw action during the war, Richard Flaxon Andrews counts among the oldest, and at almost 41 when he died, was the most senior of the tragic list of those who lost their lives in the conflict. In 1914, he claimed to be 37, and we can only imagine that he was enthused with patriotic zeal when he enlisted, as the vast majority of other Platt men who joined the Army at the start of the war were in their late teens and early twenties. Of course, he was not the oldest person to serve on the Western Front. That distinction goes to Henry Webber from Tonbridge, who was 67 and motivated by a desire to serve with his three sons, who were all in uniform.
Richard was born at 24 Suffolk Place in the Marylebone district of London on 14 December 1875. He was the only son of a butcher from Camden Town named Richard William Andrews and his wife, Mary Ann (née Trees.) On 1 August 1898, in St Mary’s Platt Church, Richard, then aged 23 years, married 18-year-old Alice Violet Hayes of Wrotham Heath. Following the wedding, Richard, who had been living in Bermondsey and working as a packing case maker, returned to London where he and Alice had two children: Richard, born in Bermondsey in May 1899 (died 1902), and May Violet, born in Vauxhall, during April 1901. They then returned to Alice’s birthplace as their next child, Albert, was born in October 1904 in Wrotham Heath, with another son named George, born in Addington in 1908. By 1911, the family had moved back to Wrotham Heath and lived at the original Railway Cottages (demolished in the late 1930s), where their youngest child, Florence Mary, was born. Richard found work in one of the local ragstone quarries but was employed as a general labourer by the time war broke out in August 1914.
On 10 December 1914, Richard travelled to Bromley to enlist. He joined the 6th (Service) Battalion, The Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), which had been formed on the outbreak of war with a nucleus of officers and men from the regimental 1st Battalion.
Private Andrews joined his unit at Hythe on 19 December. After spending six months training in the UK, he was posted to France on 1 June 1915 along with fellow parishioners Herb Ashdown and Peter Piper. The battalion entered the front line at Ploegsteert Wood near Ypres on 30 June and remained there until September, when they moved south to Béthune.
In October, the battalion suffered its first heavy casualties during a series of attacks on German lines, with the loss of three officers and 82 men missing or killed. The West Kents then moved to the Hohenzollern Redoubt, where on 13 March 1916, Richard suffered a shrapnel wound to his head. He passed through No.9 Casualty Clearing Station and later No.2 General Hospital in Le Havre before being repatriated to the UK on board the Hospital Ship Asturias. Following discharge from Fulham Military Hospital, Richard convalesced to Eastbourne before returning to France on 16 June and rejoining his unit on the Somme nine days later. At the time, the West Kents were assault training north of Amiens (near Flesselles) in preparation for the forthcoming summer offensive in the region.
At 3:15 am on Monday, 3 July, the 6th RWK attacked German positions south of Ovillers. Richard formed part of ‘A’ Company (alongside Herb Ashdown from Platt) and found himself in the first wave of the assault, which, along with ‘C’ Company, was tasked with taking the first line of German trenches. Ten minutes before zero hour, Richard and his comrades crawled as far across No Man’s Land as they could, and as soon as the Allied artillery barrage lifted, leapt up and advanced on enemy lines. The Battalion War Diary records that despite heavy enfilade machine-gun fire, the West Kents achieved their objective and began bombing along the trenches towards both flanks to clear out any surviving enemy troops and secure the position. At this point, the two remaining companies (which included Peter Piper from Crouch) pushed through and moved against the second German line, which was about 300 yards further on. Richard’s company provided covering fire for this stage of the assault; however, due to the wire not being cut, it soon became apparent that the attack had failed, with men mowed down in front of the defences, their limp bodies left hanging on the wire in contorted positions. At the same time, the battalion on Richard’s right flank also faced stiff opposition and suffered a similar fate, leaving Richard’s company dangerously exposed. ‘C’ Company’s left flank fell, making the West Kents isolated from further supplies and reinforcements. Small parties of men were observed heroically dashing across the open with ammunition and bombs, only to be repeatedly cut down by the machine guns. They gallantly held the captured lines for as long as possible; however, with the Germans hunting the men down with bombs and bayonets and casualties mounting, the rapidly diminishing force was eventually forced to pull back, allowing the enemy to regain their position.
Initially listed as being ‘missing in action’, notification of Richard’s death was published later in the month. His body lay undiscovered for over a decade when, in 1928, the remains of several West Kents were exhumed from the former battlefield. Richard was identified by the titles attached to his uniform and a service number engraved on a cigarette case. He was subsequently re-buried with military honours at the Serre Road Cemetery.
Following her husband’s death, Alice found herself with little by way of income and with four children to feed, and some months before she would receive her widow’s pension, she took up government work over eight miles away (likely in munitions), to which she walked there and back every day. With their mother absent for a significant part of the day, the children, who were still in education and often left to their own devices, began to suffer, and it wasn’t long before they started showing signs of neglect. The Platt School log book for the period records that her youngest daughter Florence had attended school in a ‘verminous condition’ and subsequently referred her to the authorities. As a result, Alice found herself in court and was fined 10 shillings (almost a week’s wage for a working woman at that time) by a rather unsympathetic judge. To compound issues, she began a relationship with a trooper in the Essex Yeomanry garrisoned at the Wilderness Camp in Sevenoaks called Charles Martin. She married him at the registry office in West Malling on 2 June 1917; however, the union was reputedly unhappy. Charles was posted overseas later that year and became an infrequent presence in Alice’s life after the war, disappearing almost entirely in his later years. Alice’s household grew further the same year when her sixteen-year-old daughter, May, fell pregnant by a local lad from Platt named Bertie Reeves. An illegitimate son, named after his father, was born in October 1917, shortly before Bertie Snr., who was only 18, was shipped off to the front. He tragically died of wounds during the German Spring Offensive in April the following year – leaving one more fatherless child and Alice taking on his guardianship. She had been awarded a war gratuity of 7 shillings, 2 pence (about £21 today) for her husband’s war service as well as a widow’s pension of 25 shillings a week from 9 March 1917 – rising to 28 shillings, 9 pence on 14 April. However, this was reduced by 2 shillings a week from 25 April and subsequently withdrawn when Alice remarried, although her children by Richard were still eligible for an allowance while her new husband was away from home. Throughout her life, Alice alternated between using both of her husband’s surnames and latterly lived on Sandy Lane in Wrotham Heath until her death in 1972.
Photograph of Richard Andrews courtesy of Mr & Mrs Waters.