Name
Richard Sleet
28 Nov 1885
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
20/10/1917
31
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
13903
Bedfordshire Regiment
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
TYNE COT MEMORIAL
Panel 48 to 50.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N.A
UK & Other Memorials
All Saints Church Memorial, St Paul's Walden, Whitwell Village Memorial
Pre War
Richard Sleet was born in St Pauls Walden, Hertfordshire on 28 Nov 1885, the son of Alfred and Avis Sleet and baptised on 2 May 1886 at St Pauls Walden. He was one of seven children.
On the 1891 Census the family of parents, Margaret (born 1884), Richard, Lily (born 1886), and Alfred (born 1891) were living at Church End, St Pauls Walden, where his father was working as a farm labourer. The family of parents, Richard, Lily Alfred, William Thomas (born 1893), and Emily May (born 1897) remained in St Pauls Walden in 1901 but moved to nearby Whitwell in 1911 when both Richard and his father were working as Woodmen on the Estate of St Pauls Walden Bury, (owned by the Earl of Strathmore), William Thomas was working as a farm labourer and all living at home with Avis and Emily May.
Richard married Minnie Amy McCallum on 19 May 1912 at St Pauls Walden. Their daughter Sylvia was born on 21 Feb 1913 and son David on 25 Feb 1915. They lived at Bury Cottages, St Pauls Walden.
Wartime Service
Richard enlisted in Hertford and joined the 7th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, as Private 13903, serving in France from 25 Jul 1915. No Service Record was found for Richard.
The Battalion fought in the the Battles of the Somme in 1916 and the Battles of Arras in 1917, including the First Battle of Passchendaele in October. On 19th Oct they were in the Front Line and were under heavy shelflire including gas shells and also on 20th Oct 1917 when Richard was reported killed in action on 20 October 1917. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium.
Additional Information
His widow Minnie received a war gratuity of £14 and pay owing of £9 14s 3d, She also received a pension of £1 5s 5d a week for herself and her children.
She later lived at 292 Kingston Road, Raynes Park, Wimbledon, SW19 and married Richard Barnes in 1920.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer, Neil Cooper
Jonty Wild
