Lieutenant Richard Spencer GLYN
1st Battalion East Kent Regiment (The Buffs)

Date of birth: 3rd October 1893
Date of death: 20th October 1914

Killed in action aged 21
Commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial Panel 2
He was born at Dartford in Kent on the 3rd of October 1893 the second son of Lewis Edmund Glyn KC, barrister at law, and Mary Eliza (nee Dugdale) of "Broomfields", Bexley, Kent and of “Thistlewood”, Dalston in Cumberland.

He attended the Junior King’s School from April 1904 and at the King’s School Canterbury to July 1910 where he was a member of the Officer Training Corps. He was fond of shooting and fishing.

On leaving school he became a law student at the Middle Temple in London.

He was commissioned as a Probationary 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion East Kent Regiment, Special Reserve of Officers, on the 13th of May 1911 and completed his training on the 11th of December 1911. He was confirmed in his rank on the 20th of January 1912 and was promoted to Lieutenant on the 20th of January 1913. He undertook his annual training with the 4th Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment.

Following the outbreak of war he was moblised on the 5th of August 1914 and embarked for France with the 1st Battalion at Southampton on board the troopship "Minneapolis" at noon on the 8th of September 1914 and landed at St Nazaire the following day at 9pm. He saw action at the Battle of the Aisne.

On the morning of the 20th of October 1914 the 1st Battalion East Kent Regiment was holding the line at a railway crossing to the east of Bas Champs near Chateau De Flandres at Radinghem. The day began with very heavy artillery fire from the German artillery with large calibre shells followed by an infantry attack during which the battalion commander Colonel Hasler was badly wounded. By 3pm the battalion was in great danger of being surrounded as the Germans forced the British units either side of them to withdraw. At 3.35pm and again at 4pm the new commanding officer Major McDouall sent messages back that the situation was very serious. His machine gun had been destroyed and C Company of the battalion had been overrun on the left of his position. At 4.50pm he received a message to hold the line “at all costs” and the headquarters party of the battalion built a barricade across the village which they defended until the promised help arrived at 7pm. During the fighting Richard Glyn was directing the fire of his men when he was shot through the heart and killed instantly. The battalion suffered casualties that day of four officers killed with four wounded and seventeen other ranks killed with fifty seven wounded and sixty two missing.

His father received the following telegram dated the 24th of October 1914:-

"Deeply regret to inform you that Lieut. R.S. Glyn The Buffs was killed in action on 20 October, No further details. Lord Kitchener expresses his sympathy."

In response to an enquiry by Glyn's father his Commanding Officer wrote:-

"I regret to have to report that nothing is known of the deceased officer's place of burial. He was killed in action to the south of Radinghem, 5 3/4 miles west of Lille, and the circumstances prevented a recovery of his body and of his personal effects he had with him at the time. It is possible that he was buried in the vicinity of the scene of his death by the Germans. The only property belonging to him, therefore, which could be returned was that which was at the time with the battalion transport in the rear."

He is commemorated on the war memorial at Old Bexley and on the memorial at the Middle Temple.
 

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