{"id":273,"date":"2014-11-02T17:58:50","date_gmt":"2014-11-02T17:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/plattwarmemorial.org\/?page_id=273"},"modified":"2024-05-22T14:02:41","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T14:02:41","slug":"richard-haxon-andrews-1875-1916","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/plattmemorialhall.org\/warmemorial\/world-war-one\/richard-haxon-andrews-1875-1916\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Flaxon Andrews (1875 &#8211; 1916)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0);background-position: center center;background-repeat: no-repeat;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-bottom: 0px;margin-top: 0px;border-width: 0px 0px 0px 0px;border-color:#eae9e9;border-style:solid;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><div class=\"fusion-title title fusion-title-1 fusion-sep-none fusion-title-text fusion-title-size-three\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:31px;margin-left:0px;\"><h3 class=\"title-heading-left fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" style=\"margin:0;--fontSize:24;line-height:1.5;\">Pte Richard Flaxon Andrews (1875 &#8211; 1916)<\/h3><\/div><span class=\" fusion-imageframe imageframe-dropshadow imageframe-1 hover-type-zoomin\" style=\"-webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 7px rgba(0,0,0,0.3);box-shadow: 3px 3px 7px rgba(0,0,0,0.3);margin-right:25px;float:left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/plattmemorialhall.org\/warmemorial\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/richard_haxon_andrews.jpg\" class=\"fusion-lightbox\" data-rel=\"iLightbox[ab56721cfcca3be5d2b]\" data-caption=\"Portrait of Richard Haxon Andrews.\" data-title=\"Richard Haxon Andrews\" title=\"Richard Haxon Andrews\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"201\" height=\"300\" alt=\"Richard Haxon Andrews\" src=\"http:\/\/plattmemorialhall.org\/warmemorial\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/richard_haxon_andrews-201x300.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive wp-image-291\" srcset=\"http:\/\/plattmemorialhall.org\/warmemorial\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/richard_haxon_andrews-201x300.jpg 201w, http:\/\/plattmemorialhall.org\/warmemorial\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/richard_haxon_andrews.jpg 673w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 201px) 100vw, 201px\" \/><\/a><\/span><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">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<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">were also somewhat more flexible with the truth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">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<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0Ann (n\u00e9e Trees.) On 1 August 1898, in St Mary\u2019s 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)<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, and May Violet, born in Vauxhall, during April 1901. They then returned to Alice\u2019s birthplace as their next child, Albert, was born in October\u00a01904 in Wrotham Heath, with another son named George, born in Addington\u00a0in 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">On 10 December 1914, Richard travelled to Bromley to enlist<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. He joined the 6th (Service) Battalion, The Queen\u2019s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), which had <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">been formed<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0on the outbreak of war with a nucleus of officers and men from the regimental 1st Battalion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Private Andrews joined his unit at Hythe on 19\u00a0<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">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 B\u00e9thune.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">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<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. 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\u00a0<\/span><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Asturias<\/span><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. Following discharge from Fulham Military Hospital, Richard convalesced to Eastbourne<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0before returning\u00a0<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">At 3:15 am on Monday, 3 July, the 6th RWK attacked German positions south of Ovillers.\u00a0<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Richard formed part of \u2018A\u2019 Company (alongside Herb Ashdown from Platt) and<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">found himself in the first wave of the assault, which, along with \u2018C<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u2019<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0Company, 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s right flank also faced stiff opposition and suffered a similar fate, leaving Richard\u2019s company dangerously exposed. \u2018C<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u2019<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0Company\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Initially listed as being \u2018missing in action\u2019, notification of Richard\u2019s death was published later in the month. His body lay undiscovered for over a decade when, in 1928, the remains of several West Kents\u00a0<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">were exhumed<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0from the former battlefield. Richard\u00a0<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">was identified<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0by 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Following her husband\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019t 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 \u2018verminous condition<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u2019<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0and subsequently referred her to the authorities. As a result, Alice found herself in court and was fined 10 shillings (almost a week\u2019s 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\u00a0at 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\u2019s life after the war, disappearing almost entirely in his later years. Alice\u2019s 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 &#8211; leaving one more fatherless child and Alice taking on his guardianship. She had been awarded a war gratuity of 7 shillings, 2 pence (about \u00a321 today) for her husband\u2019s war service as well as a widow\u2019s pension of 25 shillings a week from 9 March 1917 &#8211; 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\u2019s surnames and latterly lived on Sandy Lane in Wrotham Heath until\u00a0<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">her death<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0in 1972.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>Photograph of Richard Andrews courtesy of Mr &amp; Mrs Waters.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":53,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-273","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/plattmemorialhall.org\/warmemorial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/plattmemorialhall.org\/warmemorial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/plattmemorialhall.org\/warmemorial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/plattmemorialhall.org\/warmemorial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/plattmemorialhall.org\/warmemorial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"http:\/\/plattmemorialhall.org\/warmemorial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9141,"href":"http:\/\/plattmemorialhall.org\/warmemorial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/273\/revisions\/9141"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/plattmemorialhall.org\/warmemorial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/plattmemorialhall.org\/warmemorial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}