Died aged 34. 26 Dec 1884 – 18 Sep 1918
Private 16927, “B” Company 8th (Service) Battalion (K) SLI (63rd Infantry Brigade 37th Division).
Born on the 26th December 1883 in Carhampton and baptised there on 19 March 1884, he was the son of Richard (a labourer) and Sarah (nee Bowden) Wedlake. Richard senior was born in Carhampton and Sarah was born in Dulverton.
At the time of the 1891 census, Richard (7) was living at High Street, Carhampton (next to the reading room), with his parents Richard (40, an agricultural labourer) and Sarah (40). Also in the household were his siblings William (16), Sarah K (8) and Harriet A (2).
Richard’s mother Sarah died aged 55 of fatty degeneration of the heart and syncope on the 17th of May 1899 at Carhampton. Her husband Richard, a farm labourer, registered her death.
At the time of the 1901 census, Richard (16, a farm labourer) was still living at High Street, Carhampton (next to York House), with his father Richard (58, a carter on a farm) and sisters Sarah (19) and Harriet (12).
On 3 March 1908, Richard (23, a labourer) married Elizabeth Gould in St George’s Church, Dunster. Elizabeth (23) was the daughter of George Gould (labourer).
Richard and Elizabeth had a son Richard George, born in 1910 in Carhampton. Six months later, the 1911 census finds them living at Ford Cottage, Timberscombe. Richard was then aged 26 and worked as a carter on a farm. A daughter Dorothy was born in 1912.
Richard enlisted in Taunton. Private 16927, “B” Company 8th (Service) Battalion (K) SLI (63rd Infantry Brigade 37th Division).
Richard was killed in action aged 34 on 18 Sep 1918 during the Battles of The Hindenburg Line 12 Sep – 12 Oct 1918. From Dunster Museum: “At the time he died, Richard was with the 63rd Brigade of the 37th Division in the IV Corps in the Third Army. It is likely that he took part in the ‘Hundred Days Offensive’, pushing the Germans out of France forcing them to retreat beyond the Hindenburg Line and followed by an armistice. The term “Hundred Days Offensive” does not refer to a specific battle or unified strategy, but rather the rapid series of Allied victories starting with The Battle of Amiens. Based on the date, it is likely he was on his way to the Hindenburg Line when he died, just after the Battle of Havrincourt-Epehy on 12 – 18 September. According to a relative, Richard was a cook in B Company and was killed when a shell hit his position. From the date of his death it means he survived the Second Battle of the Somme against all odds.”
In his will, dated 7th September 1915, Richard left all “my property and effects to my wife Elizabeth Wedlake.”
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission gives his next of kin as his parents Richard and Sarah Wedlake and his wife Elizabeth Wedlake, of St. George’s St., Dunster, Taunton.
Richard is commemorated on Bay 1, Panel 4, Vis-En-Artois Memorial to the Missing, Haucourt, near Arras, and on the plaques in St George’s Church and Memorial Hall in Dunster, Somerset.
