Current Information:

Born-Richmond-on-Thames

On 15th April, 1915, the 4th Royal Fusiliers battalion of 9 Brigade, 3rd Division went into trenches at St Eloi just to the south of Ypres where they remained until relieved on 19th April. The battalion diary provides little information about this period spent in the front line so the circumstances of the death of Richard Christmas who was killed on 17th April, are not known. The attrition rate among British soldiers on the Western Front was on average 300 each day and 60% of these were as a result of shellfire. When not involved in an actual battle it was either shell fire or a sniper’s bullet that caused most deaths and injuries.