Alfred Henry Richardson

Rank: 
Private
Regimental number: 
225634
Unit at enlistment: 
Depot Regiment, Canadian Mounted Rifles
Force: 
C.E.F.
Volunteered or conscripted: 
Volunteered
Survived the war: 
No
Date of death: 
April 12th, 1918
Cemetery: 
Prospect Cemetery, Soldiers' Plot, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Commemorated at: 
Paris Presbyterian Church, Penmans Ltd. Honour Roll
Birth country: 
Canada
Birth county: 
Brant
Birth city: 
Paris, Ontario
Address at enlistment: 
Paris, Ontario
Next of kin address: 
Paris, Ontario
Trade or calling: 
Mill hand
Employer: 
Penmans No. 1 Mill
Religious denominations: 
Presbyterian
Marital status: 
Single
Age at enlistment: 
17

Letters and documents

Circumstances of Death: Cerebritis. Admitted to hospital on March 9th, 1918, diagnosis of Chancroids. Given treatment.  Died at 4.45 p.m.  April 12, 1918.

Place: Base Hospital, Toronto, Ontario

BX April 15, 1918

Military Funeral for Private Alfred Henry Richardson

A military funeral under the auspices of the G.W.V.A. will be accorded the remains of Private Alfred Henry Richardson, second son of Mr. and Mrs. George R. Richardson of 187 Riverdale Avenue, Toronto, who died on Friday at the Base hospital. The deceased soldier was just in his 18th year, and death resulted from having been gassed. He enlisted at Brantford in 1915 with the 25th Brant Dragoons and transferred to the C.M.R. at Hamilton. He was overseas with the 10th Calgary Battalion. He went through the battle at Hill 70, but was wounded at Vimy Ridge and gassed at Lens. Rev. Mr. Nicholson of the Paris Presbyterian Church will conduct the service and interment will be made in the Prospect cemetery.

Toronto Evening Telegram – April 15, 1918

Chat of “Shrapnel Corners” – Veteran Hero Seventeen

Pte. A.H. Richardson Buried

Mother Praises Base Hospital Attention – Doings of G.W.V.A. and City Veterans

SHRAPNEL CORNERS – April 15 – “A fighter in life and a fighter in death” was the title eighteen year old Pte. “Alf.” H. Richardson won for himself during his thirty one months of active service.  This afternoon the young soldier was taken to his last resting place, at Prospect Cemetery, to the muffled sound of drum and trumpet.  “Laughing red” his chums all called him, because of the ever present smile and the thick crop of auburn hair.  He had been back from the front just seven weeks when he was honorably discharged from further service by the Great General of all the earth’s armies.

SPARED TO COME HOME

“I think I am a favored mother compared with a great many,” were the brave words of the bereaved” Mrs. Richardson at her home, 187 Riverdale Avenue.  “I am so thankful that my boy was spared to come home to me.

And will you please say how grateful I am to the doctors and nurses at the Base Hospital.  Everything that loving hands could do for my boy was done by his nurses, and two stood by his bedside to the very end.  The doctor who examined him told me he was one of the cleanest lads they had ever admitted, and I am so thankful for that,” added the sad mother.

JOINED AT FIFTEEN

A lad of fifteen, “Laughing Red” enlisted immediately he had left Brantford Business College, and was sixteen months in France with the Fighting Tenth (10th Calgary Batt.).  He enlisted in the 25th Brant Dragoons in 1915 and transferred in Canada to the C.M.R.’s. Boy soldier as he was, Pte. Richardson was twice wounded and once gassed and was proud to say he was the fourth man in his battalion to go over the top at Vimy Ridge.  The excitement of homecoming and effects of gas caused Cerebritis, which proved fatal.

This afternoon martial music and khaki-clad comrades escorted him to the grave, his uncle, Rev. George Cropp, and pastor, Rev. J. Nicholson, officiating at the funeral.  Pte. Richardson is survived by two brothers and his parents.

BX May 3, 1917
 
Today’s casualty list officially reports the wounding of Private William Walter Montague Abbott, of Brantford; Private Alfred Henry Richardson of Paris.