Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Richard Thompson was born in January 1889 in Durham, England. He had one known parent, Melinda Thompson, his mother. He was an only child with no siblings. He was not a very religious person but he was a follower of the protestant religion. He eventually moved to South Australia and decided to become a carpenter. This was about the time the World War started, and he decided to enlist himself in the battle.

He was enlisted on the 21st of June 1915 in Keswick, South Australia. He was 170cm tall and 70kg in weight. He was dark skinned, with blue eyes and brown hair.  He was Taken on Strength for the 27th Battalion, who were in Tel-el Kebir at the time, on the 12th January 1916. For two months, the 27th Battalion trained for battle in Ismailia, Egypt. Then, on the 7th of March, Thompson was transferred to the 7th field company engineers. The engineers were renowned for their bravery as there primary role was to dig holes under enemy bases, place bombs and dig out trenches. He was transferred to the 7th Field Company in Moascar, Egypt on the same day. He then embarked overseas on the ‘HMT Minneapolis’ from Alexandria in Egypt to Marseilles in France. This journey took 5 days, from the 14th to the 19th of March. Only 4 days after the travel, the HMT Minneapolis was torpedoed by German submarines. This caused the loss of 12 people.

Once they arrived in France the 7th Field Company Engineers began work in the ‘Nursery Trenches’. This was a quieter section of the trenches at Armentieres where Thompson’s division earned some extra training to improve their abilities in battle conditions. As a part of this, they fixed a lot of the trenches and endured some battle, proven by the reports of two wounded officers. Next, they built some dugouts. These dugouts were used for rest and shelter throughout all trenches in the war. They also were responsible for building mortars to help kill enemies that were behind cover similarly to a mortar. On the 13th of June, Thompson was promoted to Lance Corporal of the 7th Field Company Engineers.

On July 26th 1916 Thompson experienced his first major battle, the Battle of Somme. The battle was across the French River, the Somme. The 7th Field Company were apart of this battle. The battle lasted until November. The Engineers helped the allies in this battle by building trenches across important strategic locations, giving them a tactical advantage. They also built MG pits. This was an area in which a soldier operated a heavily powered machine gun while only exposing a small part of their head. This would mow down opposing soldiers without the major risk of being shot. On the 22nd of August, Thompson was promoted to Temporary Corporal of the 7th Field Company Engineers, a very important role in the war. The engineers than were assigned to the drainage of some 8 locations, which included many different camps, transport lines and headquarters. After this job, he re-joined the rest of the 7th field company in Belgium on 2nd of October, where his role was changed to temporary 2nd corporal.

For the rest of the month, the 7th Field Company worked on fixing, maintaining and digging new trenches and paths for battle. On the 6th of November, Thompson was seriously injured. He was admitted and transferred to the C.R.S Shell ABR, a hospital in France, on the 6th of November. After a week of recovery, Thompson was able to re-join his division. Then, 8 days later, he was promoted to 2nd Corporal. Over the next four months, the 7th Field Company were responsible for a lot of maintaining and building trenches and other strategic buildings. He was promoted to temporary Corporal on the 5th of February. He then was detached for school in France 10 days later. He joined the unit again on the 30th and continued working on trenches and repairs as such. He was mentioned in Sir Douglas Haig’s despatches on the 9th of April, a quite prestigious award. A few days before, however, the 7th Field Company had joined in on the Battles of Gaza

On the third of May 1917, the 7th Field Company was amidst the battles of Gaza. On this day, 900 Australian lives were taken. This number included Richard Thompson. He was reported KIA. He was buried in Queant Road cemetery, Buissy, France a few days later with many of his allies. His grave reads to this day ‘He died that others might live’, showing his impressive sacrifice for our country, knowing that his death was not for nothing.