KILLED LEADING HIS BRIGADE
BUT 5 DAYS LANDED
SOLDIER AND GREAT GENTLEMAN

BRIGADIER GENERAL JAMES FOSTER RIDDELL

OFFICER COMMANDING 149TH INFANTRY BRIGADE, LATE NORTHUMBERLAND FUSILIERS

26TH APRIL 1915 AGE 52

BURIED: TYNE COT CEMETERY, BELGIUM


Four days after the Germans launched their first gas attack on the Western Front the situation outside Ypres was desperate. Newly landed in France, 149 Brigade was rushed up to the front and ordered to make a frontal attack in broad daylight on the village of St Julien. About mid-afternoon General Riddell insisted on going forward to the firing line to see the situation for himself. He was seen conferring with his battalion commanders when he was shot through the head by a sniper. Obituaries spoke admiringly of his military career in India and South Africa and of his skill as a horseman both on the polo pitch and in the hunting field.