Richard James (N.B. Both the CWGC website & Soldiers Died… records Straughans Christian name as Richard only, his middle name was found on the 1911 Census. There is no mention of a middle name in Straughans service records.) Straughan

Forename(s):
Richard James (N.B. Both the CWGC website & 'Soldiers Died...' records Straughan's Christian name as Richard only, his middle name was found on the 1911 Census. There is no mention of a middle name in Straughan's service records.)

Surname:
Straughan

Initial(s):
R J

Service Number:
386058

Rank:
Private

Regiment:
Royal Army Medical Corps (Territorial Force)

Died:
30/10/1918

Aged:
22

Buried:
Niederzwehren Cemetery, Kasseler Stadtkreis, Hessen, Germany (N.B. The Germany, Find a Grave Index, 1600-Current [available via Ancestry.co.uk] records the name as Richard R. Straughan)

Service History:
Straughan first enlisted on 17 April 1912 when he joined the 1st Northumbrian Field Ambulence, R.A.M.C.. At that time he was 5 feet 3 inches tall.

Embodied service at Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland as a Bugler, on 5 August 1914.

About 20 pages of Straughan's service records are available via Ancestry.co.uk.

Reported 'Missing', then a Prisoner of War, on 27 May 1918.

Died at the Camp Hospital, Quedlinburg, Germany as a Prisoner of War. The cause of death is generally recorded as 'Unknown' although one sheet of Straughan's service records refers to exhaustion & cardiac paralysis.

Background:
Born at Rothbury, Northumberland, the son of John & Wilhelmina Straughan, of 30, Hotspur Street, Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne.

In 1911 the family was living at 79, Shield Street, Shieldfield, Newcastle. John (48) was a Railwayman; Wilhelmina (52), whose birthplace was Wick, Caithness, Scotland, was a Housekeeper; Straughan (14) was a Grocer's Errand Boy; & an elder sister, Mary (16) was a Shop Assistant at a drapery store.

Local Memorial:
Unknown