| Rank | Private, Lance Corporal, Sergeant |
| Service # | 124210 |
| Unit # | 70th Battalion, P.P.C.L.I., 7th Canadian Trench Mortar Battery |
| Resident | Tilbury |
The son of P. W. Richards, brother of John Wesley (153541).
Pte. Maurice W. Richards left for overseas with the 70th Battalion April 21st, 1916, and was appointed Instructor in Musketry with his Battalion at Shorncliffe, and promoted to Lance Corporal. He reverted to go to France with the P.P.C.L.I. and shortly regained his L/Cpl. stripe, with the 7th Canadian Trench Mortar Battery. He was recommended for a Military Medal after Vimy Ridge.
The Tilbury Times, Thursday
23 October, 1918.
Sergt. Richards Returns.
“On October 15, 1915, Sergt. Morris Richards, son of Mr. and Mrs. P. W. Richards of this place signed up for service with the 70th Batt. and four years later to the day, returned after doing his bit for the Empire. Shortly after his regiment ended in England in May, 1916 he was transferred to the Princess Pats, [PPCLI], and in June of the same year he went to France, and was with that crack regiment in all their engagements until a steel girder girder crushed his arm in a trench explosion in August 1917. Sergt. Richards says that two particular dates during his period of service will be long remembered. On Sept. 15, 1916, he and Louis and Charles Reaume of Tilbury, who returned home sometime ago in a platoon of 54 ‘Pats’, who went into action and only 10 men survived. In April of the following year he was the sole survivor of a trench mortar battery of 9 men at Vimy Ridge. When he was wounded at Hill 70, in the trench explosion, he was taken to Etaples Hospital, France, where he narrowly escaped death by bombs dropped on the hospital by Germans, where a number of nurses and patients were killed near him. When discharged from the hospital his right arm was useless, but later recovered fair use of it, although it is 3 ½ inches shorter than his left arm. Had the war lasted another month he would have been in action with the flying corps’ as he had secured admission to that branch of service. He did clerical work at headquarters at Echelin, France, after the Armistice was signed, and in June last was moved to England. Sergt. Richards is now aged 27 and was ledger-keeper in the Merchants Bank here before enlisting, and expects to resume banking after a brief rest.”
GOH Additional information.
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