Military History

Charles is listed as being killed in action on 9th May 1915 during the Battle of Aubers. The 1st Battalion war diary is very difficult to read and the below description of events is provided by The Western Front Association. 

"At 5am the British artillery opened up. This was not as intense as had been managed at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle due to ammunition shortages. Some of the fire was said to have fallen short - this was caused by barrel-wear on the guns. After an intensification of the bombardment at 5.30am, the infantry attacked. Although some of the attacking troops managed to break into the German lines in the northern attack, this was an isolated success and generally the attack broke down at an early stage. Some men were seen to be retiring, having received a verbal order, at the same time German prisoners being shepherded  to the rear were mistaken for a counter attack. In among this confusion was Brigadier-General Arthur Lowry Cole, who - with his staff - was attempting to restore order. Bravely - or foolishly - Lowry Cole stood on the parapet in an attempt to restore order and was hit and mortally wounded.

The heaviest fatalities in this northern attack fell on the 2nd Rifle Brigade, which lost over 250 officers and men killed. Other battalions suffered heavy losses, with almost 200 officers and men killed in the 1st Royal Irish Rifles. The vast majority of these men are commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial in Belgium. (Unusually, for a single day's action the commemorations are divided between two memorials to the missing. The men with no known grave who were killed in the Northern attack are commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial, but those in the southern attack are name on Le Touret Memorial to the Missing. )

In the southern attack, there was virtually no success at all. The 2nd Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment lost over 270 officers and men killed, and the 1st Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment suffered over 260 fatalities. Casualties were nearly as heavy in many other battalions, with the 2nd Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers suffering over 150 dead, including Lt Colonel Rickard.

Lt Col Rickard's body was found and was originally buried at Edward Road Cemetery Number 2. This cemetery one of a group of "Edward Road" Cemeteries (numbering at least five) that were in the nearby village of Richebourg l'Avoué. The men buried in Cemetery Number 2 were re-interred in the early in about 1924. Ten identified Indian soldiers were re-buried in an Indian plot at Rue-du-Bacquerot No 1 Military Cemetery , but the majority of the men originally buried in this small cemetery (twenty of whom were identified and were known to be killed on 9 May 1915) were  re-interred in Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery at Souchez.