Arthur Sidney Riches; Private 7th (Service) Battalion, Rifle Brigade.

Arthur Riches joined the Tank Corps in 1918, after serving with the Rifle Brigade, and saw action on the battlefields in France.
(National Library of Scotland)

Arthur was born in Melton on 17th December 1889 and, in 1911, he was working as a hall porter at St Audry’s Hospital. In January 1912, Arthur left home to start a new job as an attendant at Bexley Asylum in Kent.

Arthur enlisted into the services in January 1916 and, on 27th, he married Alice Maud Pitcher at St Luke’s Church, Battersea. After five months of training, Arthur was posted to France in May 1916 and joined the 7th (Service) Battalion, Rifle Brigade who were in the Arras area. He remained with the battalion until April 1918, when they were reduced to cadre strength with some of the men, including Arthur, transferred to the Tank Corps.

For his war service, Arthur received the British War and Victory Medals. On returning home, he continued working as a male nurse at the London County Mental Hospital in Bexley Heath and qualified in January 1925. Arthur died in 1979 at the age of ninety.