The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (4503) Sapper Edward Riches, 1st Division Signalling Company, AIF, First World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Sharon Bown, the story for this day was on (4503) Sapper Edward Riches, 1st Division Signalling Company, AIF, First World War.

4503 Sapper Edward Riches, 1st Division Signalling Company, AIF
KIA 15 November 1917

Story delivered 28 July 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Sapper Edward Victor Riches.

Edward Riches was born in 1897, one of six children of Robert and Elizabeth Riches of Romford in Essex, England. Edward spent some of his formative years at Sandringham School at Forest Gate in London before the Riches family immigrated to Australia in 1910. He finished his schooling in the Adelaide suburb of Richmond where he paraded with the 75th Battalion Senior Cadets. After school, Riches attended the Adelaide School of Mines worked as an engineer at Campbell & Co. Engineering firm, and was a member of the 78th Adelaide Rifles.

Riches enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in January 1916, and after a period of training at Exhibition Camp and Mitchem, embarked with a reinforcement group for the 27th Battalion, bound for the training camps in Egypt. The Gallipoli campaign had ended before Edward enlisted, and the AIF spent the following months training and reorganising for its departure for the Western Front. Riches sailed for France in June 1916 and participated in the bitter fighting for Pozières and Mouquet Farm during the following weeks. Perhaps due to his engineering background, he transferred to the 1st Divisions Signals Company where he joined his older brother Robert, and was responsible for maintaining communications between the infantry and their various headquarters units.

Now a sapper, Riches participated in the 1st Division’s major actions on the Western Front the following year, including Gueudecourt, Lagnicourt, and Bullecourt. In September, Riches went on furlough to England for a well-earned period of leave. He returned to the front as the Australians made a series of advances in Belgium that stalled before the village of Passchendaele. Within eight weeks of fighting in the Third Battle of Ypres, the Australians suffered some 36,000 casualties.

After numerous attempts to reach Passchendaele village, the Australians were relieved by the Canadian Corps in November 1917 and moved back south into France. Riches was killed as the 1st Division Signals Company was moving between the Ypres Ramparts to their new headquarters in France. The historical records do not tell us how he met his final moments. All that we know is that he was 20 years old, and was buried at Reninghelst New Military Cemetery in Belgium, where he rests today.

Edward Riches is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with 60,000 others from the First World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Sapper Edward Riches, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section