LIEUTENANT RICHARD ROY LEWER
KING'S ROYAL RIFLE CORPS
21ST JULY 1916 AGE 26
BURIED: HEILLY STATION CEMETERY, MERICOURT-L'ABBE, FRANCE
Richard Lewer was wounded on 16 July 1916 in the King's Royal Rifle Corps' attack on High Wood. He lay out in the open for four days before being found. A brother officer and a fellow old boy of Denstone College, wounded on the 15th, takes up the story:
" On the 20th he [Lewer] was brought into No. 36 Casualty Clearing Station and put into the bed opposite mine (later we were moved and I was next to him). He was very weak of course, and asked for food but was quite cheery. We then exchanged experiences.
When he was hit his orderly got him into a shell-hole, bandaged him up and put a rough splint on his leg. Then they withdrew and he couldn't be got away. His orderly had to go and left his water-bottle with him. He was in the shell-hole five days (16th to 20th) until we took the wood again.
When the Germans came in they didn't take any notice of him but he told them to give him some water, which they did, but no food. After the first day they wouldn't give him anything, and then left him alone, except to call him names so that he then had about two bottles of water (his orderly's and his) left, which he spun out.
His wound didn't trouble him very much, and he had morphia with him which he took periodically. This of course was a great relief and enabled him to sleep a certain amount. The worst thing of all, was, of course, when our guns shelled the wood, which was pretty often, and it is wonderful that he was not hit again. Then on the 20th he was found by our own people, much to everyone's surprise, and got back immediately. This is all he told me; he was asleep when I was moved so I couldn't say good-bye." Later of course, he died of his wounds.
The Denstonian
April 1917
Lewer was a geological surveyor who had worked for British Burmah Oil Co. before going to the Caucasian Oil Fields and then to Western Canada. He returned to Britain immediately on the outbreak of war and was commissioned into the King's Royal Rifle Corps.