Current Information:

Born-Hoxton

At the outbreak of war in 1914 there were two machine guns to each battalion which was far from adequate and substantially fewer than the German Army. The need for more of these weapons and the specialised training they required led to the establishment of Machine Gun Corps in the autumn of 1915 with each infantry brigade being furnished with their own machine gun company, taking the same number as the brigade. These companies were equipped with the new Vickers machine gun whilst the individual infantry battalions were supplied with the lighter, hand-held Lewis guns.

The 112th Company of the Machine Gun Corps were part of 112 Brigade, 37th Division which took part in the Battle of Pilckem Ridge at the start of the Third Battle of Ypres on 31st July, 1917. Richard Shoulder was killed in action on 3rd August but as yet there is no further information concerning his death.