Commemorated on family grave at St. Garmon’s Church, Llanarmon Mynydd Mawr,
BORN – Llansilin
HOMEFRONT – Place / Occupation
JOB – Farm Carter
UNIT – 25 Bn Royal Welsh Fusiliers (formerly 2914 Montgomeryshire Yeomanry)
RANK – Private 35360
THEATRE – Middle East / PLACE. 25 Bn Royal Welsh Fusiliers. December 1917.
DIED – DoW 5 December 1917. Aged 26.
BURIED – Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery. (CWGC)
Richard Thomas Coleman was born in 1892 at Llansilin, Denbighshire. His father, John Thomas Coleman, was a Farm Bailiff. His mother was Mary Ann Coleman (nee Richards). John and Mary were married at St. Garmon’s Church, Llanarmon Mynydd Mawr, Denbighshire in May 1885. They would have 3 children; Richard was the eldest followed by Elizabeth Ellen, born in July 1895, and John Glyn, born in 1905. In the 1901 the family was living at Tan Y Ffridd, a farm at Llanrhaeadr Ym Mochnant. In 1911 Richard, then aged 19, was living at Plas Maengwynedd, Llanrhaeadr; a farm owned by Charles Edwards, where Richard worked as a Farm Carter. At this time his parents and youngest child, John, had moved to Ffynondeg, Sychtyn, Oswestry. His father would die in 1914 and his widowed mother moved into Oswestry living at 11 Lower Brook Street.
Richard enlisted at Welshpool and joining the 1/1 Bn Montgomeryshire Yeomanry as Private 2914 – then a cavalry unit which in November 1917 was dismounted and became infantry. They sailed for Egypt in March 1916. In March 1917 the battalion was disbanded with troops transferring to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Regimental numbers were re-designated and Richard became Private 35360 in 25 Bn Royal Welsh Fusiliers.
In December 1916 he wrote a letter home in which he speaks of the difference between the sand of the desert and the green of Maen Gwynedd – also whilst in Palestine, Richard wrote a poem in Welsh, where he remembers his childhood and family – see photo below.
Richard died of wounds on 5 December 1917. No details are available as when or where he was injured – possibly in the fighting for Gaza or later in the advance towards Jerusalem. He died at Alexandria and is buried in the (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery. He is also commemorated on the family grave at St. Garmon’s Church, Llanarmon Mynydd Mawr.
Acknowledgements. – Permission to include the poem and letter kindly given by Mrs. Mary Morgan whose grandmother was a cousin of Richard Coleman.
See also – believed to have enlisted at same time as Richard Private 355357 John A Richards, 25 Bn RWF (formerly Pte 2907 1/1 Mont. Yeo.
END