Charles Edward Ridges

Family

Charles (or Charley) Edward Ridges was born in Loddiswell, near Kingsbridge, in 1894. He was the second son of John Edward Ridges and his wife, Florence Yalland. John, Florence and their children came to Dartmouth sometime between 1902 and 1907.

Both Charley and his elder brother Harry joined the Army before the war. Harry joined the Devonshire Regiment some time in 1908. He was an early casualty of the war, being wounded at Neuve Chapelle on 18^th December 1914. He was brought back to the Victoria Hospital, Blackpool, where he died on 3^rd January 1915. He was buried at Longcross Cemetery, in Dartmouth, a week later. For more on Charley's family background, see his brother Harry's story here.

Service

Charley's service papers have not survived, so it is not known when he joined the 9^th Lancers. However, comparison of his service number (4585) with others joining the Corps of Lancers before December 1913 (when service numbers for the Corps reached 5000) indicates that he joined early in 1913.

We know a little about his wartime service because the nominal roll kept by the 9^th Lancers during the war has survived. This notes that he was a member of "C" squadron (the regiment was divided into three squadrons) and that he was mobilised in August 1914. The 1914 Star Medal Roll for the 9^th Lancers records that he arrived in France on 15^th August 1914. He was one of thirty officers and 588 other ranks, with 613 horses; part of the 2^nd Cavalry Brigade, together with 4^th Dragoon Guards, 18^th Hussars and the 2^nd Signal Troop.

The 9^th Lancers were thrown straight into the fight as part of the scouting and screening force for the British Expeditionary Force. On 23^rd August, while the infantry fought at Mons, they were in the village of Thulin, a few miles to the west. As the Regimental History put it:

The following morning they were ordered to retire to the south-west, as part of the retreat from Mons, only to be sent back again when an appeal for help came from the 5^th Division of the BEF against German forces threatening to envelop them. The 18^th Hussars were sent to Elouges and the 4^th Dragoon Guards and 9^th Lancers to a position north of Audregnies, through which they had come earlier that day. What exactly happened next, and who gave what order, is still disputed, but A and C squadrons, which had already reached Audregnies, and had dismounted and opened fire, remounted, and together with the 4^th Dragoon Guards, charged. Well short of contact with the enemy, the charge was halted by some sort of wire fencing and the railway embankment, and the brigade was largely scattered. It took several days to account for everyone; losses for both the 9^th Lancers and 4^th Dragoon Guards were 169 killed, wounded or taken prisoner, and about 300 horses.

The Marquess of Anglesey, in A History of British Cavalry, observes, trenchantly:

He is, however, prepared to concede that there might have been a "moral[e] effect". The charge became famous (or infamous) as one of the few occasions during the war on the Western Front in which cavalry was used in a traditional way.

It appears that Charley Ridges was wounded in this charge. Later he wrote to his parents, and his letter appeared in the Dartmouth Chronicle of 25^th September 1914. The newspaper stated that he had been wounded at the Battle of Mons (the action in fact took place the following day, covering the retreat from Mons), and continued:

The 9^th Lancers nominal roll indicates that he rejoined the regiment on 10^th October, a day on which the War Diary records that 89 other ranks joined, along with 92 riding horses and 20 draught horses (with five limbered waggons). By this time, the regiment was at Villers Brulin, south of Béthune, but heading north towards Ypres. Meanwhile, the cavalry had been reorganised to form a Corps of two Divisions, increasingly deployed dismounted, in effect as infantry, to plug the gaps in the line as the fighting continued while the front slowly stabilised.

On 30^th October, they received orders to take over trenches in front of Messines (Mesen), south of Ypres. They had barely sufficient numbers to hold the line, and when the following day they were attacked "in overwhelming force", according to the Regimental History, they were forced to retire to the west of the village. Three quarters of the officers and over a third of other ranks in the line had become casualties, amongst them, Charley, wounded for a second time. His wound may have been more serious on this occasion, as the 9^th Lancers nominal roll records that he was sent to England for treatment on 1^st November 1914.

According to the nominal roll, Charley rejoined the regiment later in November (the exact date is not given). During that month the regiment was in the trenches near the Menin Road until 23^rd November, after which they were out of the line for several months. Whether Charley actually returned to France in November is not clear - he was evidently able to attend his brother Harry's funeral in England on 10^th January 1915, for the Dartmouth Chronicle reported him there.

During January and February 1915, the 9^th Lancers practised the skills they needed to fight dismounted, as well as keeping up their mounted warfare abilities. In late February/early March, they completed a further spell in the trenches at Zillebeke, near Ypres, leaving the horses stabled at Meteren under care of a party lent by 2^nd Life Guards for the purpose.

They were not, as it turned out, required for the Neuve Chapelle offensive in March 1915, though they were kept at one hour's notice for a week; subsequently, as the Regimental History puts it:

The 9^th Lancers had not yet done with fighting, however. For their experiences during the second Battle of Ypres, see the story of William Richard Stone, missing presumed dead on 13^th May 1915. On 19^th May, a portion of the regiment went back into the reserve trenches in the Menin Road sector:

Perhaps surprisingly in such circumstances, casualties were low - two men killed and four wounded.

Their next tour in the front line began on the night of 23^rd May 1915, where they occupied trenches either side of the Menin Road. They had been reinforced by 520 men from other units - 4^th Green Howards and 5^th Durham Light Infantry. The following day, at what became known as the Battle of Bellwaarde Ridge, "the regiment underwent its greatest day of glory and sorrow of the whole war". They first came under heavy gas and shell-fire attack, as the Germans broke through the front to the north. The Regimental History describes the enemy "pouring in flood past [A Squadron's] left, driving our fugitive troops before them down the Menin road. The situation was critical in the extreme".

However, the 9^th Lancers Commanding Officer was able to bring up reinforcements from other units to hold a position in the "GHQ" reserve line. A counter-attack was then mounted, for which the 9^th Lancers provided flanking fire, and the ground lost was regained. But casualties were very heavy: Francis Grenfell, who had won a VC at Audregnies, was killed, with another officer; a third died later of gas poisoning. Five other officers were wounded or gassed. Amongst the men, 33 were killed or died of wounds or gas, 72 were wounded and 103 gassed - 208 out of the 350 who had gone into the line the day before.

The Regimental History then goes on to observe that:

At the Battle of Loos, on 25^th September 1915, the 1^st and 2^nd Cavalry Divisions were held back, in expectation (or hope) of a breakthrough; which never came (for an account of the battle, see our article here). Afterwards, in what became a common pattern, 2000 men from the Cavalry Corps were sent to clear up the battlefield and improve the captured trenches; the 9^th Lancers contributed 4 officers and 100 men for two days.

Early in October 1915, the Cavalry Corps put forward a plan to place the cavalry's horses in stables over winter, and use the men to form a "Dismounted Division". Each Cavalry Division provided a dismounted brigade of three battalions, one from each Cavalry Brigade; every battalion was made up of three companies, one from each Cavalry Regiment. Together, this numbered about 8,200 front line men, plus appropriate transport and staff functions. The Dismounted Division was used for trench-holding, either during the winter or on occasions that an extra division was needed and there was no immediate plan to employ the cavalry mounted.

The 9^th Lancers' contribution to this in 1915/16 was 300 rifles, and they went into the line on 31^st December. They were in the trenches at Vermelles, alternating every four or five days between front line and support or reserve trenches, for about six weeks, returning to the regiment on 14th February. The Regimental History records that casualties during this relatively short period were "considerable ... one officer killed, one wounded, and 12 other ranks killed and 39 wounded".

Whether Charley was a member of the Dismounted Division is not known. On 15^th November 1915, the nominal roll records that he qualified as a saddler, so he was perhaps retained with the rest of the regiment to look after the horses and their equipment - the horses may have been in stables, but they still required a high level of care.

After the 9^th Lancers contingent in the Dismounted Division had returned to the regiment, the next few months were, by comparison, pleasant, as all the cavalry were withdrawn to be "fatted up" (as it was called) for the impending summer offensive. The focus was on training, but also on sport - a race meeting in February, regimental and squadron sports and a divisional marathon in April, and a brigade Horse Show in May. There was also polo; and in May, the regiment went for several days training at Merlimont, near Montreuil, where both men and horses swam in the sea.

On 1^st July 1916, as the infantry waited in their thousands to go "over the top" on the Somme, the 9^th Lancers, with the rest of 1^st Cavalry Division, moved up from their assembly point at Querrieu to Bresle, five miles south-west of Albert. General Haig planned and hoped for the possibility that the German front might collapse, and thus that a gap might be made in German defensive lines, through which the cavalry could be pushed through into open country - his orders were:

According to Stephen Badsey, Haig was not necessarily thinking of a German collapse on the first day as such, but of a major breakthrough which could develop over a few days. He wanted to be able to exploit this fully, if it happened. General Rawlinson was much more sceptical about the possibility of German collapse and a cavalry breakthrough; and these major disagreements were not resolved by the start of the battle.

In the event, the cavalry was not "pushed through" anywhere, even though the first line defences had been taken in the southern part of the front. The strain on logistic arrangements of keeping them fed and watered in the area immediately behind the front became too great, nor was there room for two cavalry divisions in an area congested by the movement of infantry reinforcements and supplies of all sorts. They were soon withdrawn further to the rear.

Meanwhile, on 4^th July 1916, 63 men were detailed from 9^th Lancers as part of a larger party of 600 from 1^st Cavalry Division, to assist in clearing the battlefield at Fricourt, leaving at dawn and returning at 6.30pm. This was one of several such parties provided during the next few months by the cavalry, described by one officer (and quoted in the Regimental History) as a "Vulture Party". They removed wounded, buried the dead, salvaged useable equipment (such as the rifles of dead and wounded men) and cleared debris - a far cry from the glory and romance of a cavalry charge, but seemingly, of more value in the circumstances.

The following day, 5^th July, 53 men, led by two officers, went to the XIII Corps area "for work" (as the War Diary describes it), while the remainder of the regiment withdrew to Warlus, sixteen miles west of Amiens. According to the 9^th Lancers War Diary, this working party spent nearly a month behind the front line, being relieved on 3^rd August. From 16^th July, they were led by Second Lt Martin Hunter, who wrote about the work in his diary (quoted in the Regimental History). Although the work was behind the fighting, it was far from "safe":

On 24^th July, another working party, consisting of two officers and 67 other ranks, was sent to the Fricourt area for the same purpose. The War Diary records that they were partly relieved on 21^st August, by a further party of 51 other ranks. Yet another party, of 51 other ranks, was sent to the "forward area" on 8^th October. Both men and officers were rotated through the role, until the dismounted party finally rejoined the regiment on 21^st October.

Death

It appears that Charley was amongst those members of 9^th Lancers detailed for the "Vulture Parties" - either on 24^th July, or on 21^st August. On 15^th September, the 9^th Lancers War Diary records that "Major A M Grenfell was wounded with the Divisional working party"; and in the margin alongside, apparently at the same time, "1 OR killed and 5 OR wounded in action".

Subsequently, Major Grenfell was awarded the DSO for "conspicuous gallantry" in the action in which he was wounded. The citation (London Gazette 20^th October 1916) read:

Awarded a Military Cross was Lt W G Gisborne (London Gazette 20^th October 1916):

The 9^th Lancers nominal roll confirms that Charley was killed in action on 15^th September 1916, and that Major A M Grenfell was wounded on the same day. Taken together with the War Diary, this indicates that Charley was a member of the Divisional Working Party.

The 9^th Lancers War Diary records the awards to Major Grenfell and Lt Gisborne on 28^th September, but does not provide any further details of the action for which they were awarded, and in which, it seems, Charley was killed. The above accounts suggest that the Divisional Working Party, under Major Grenfell, was involved in rather more than battlefield clearance on 15^th September, which was the opening day of the offensive intended to capture the original German Third Line defensive system. More research is required on this point.

Commemoration

Charley is one of 72,000 men commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing on the Somme, for those dying in the Somme sector before 20^th March 1918, and who have no known grave.

In Dartmouth he is commemorated on the Town War Memorial and the St Saviour's Memorial Board.

Dartmouth Town Memorial

St Saviour's Memorial Board

He is also commemorated in the inscription on his brother Harry's grave in Longcross Cemetery:

"Also in remembrance of Charley, brother of the above, killed in action Sep 15 1916, RIP"

Charley is also commemorated on the 9^th Lancers War Memorial in Canterbury Cathedral.

Sources

War Diary of 9^th (Queen's Royal) Lancers available for download from The National Archives, fee payable, reference WO 95/1113/2

The nominal roll of the 9^th Lancers during the First World War may be searched on the website of the 9^th/12^th Royal Lancers Museum

The museum's website also provides access to a digitised copy of the Regimental History: The 9^th Queen's Royal Lancers 1715-1936, by Major E W Sheppard, pub Gale and Polden Ltd 1936

9^th Lancers War Memorial, Canterbury Cathedral

A History of the British Cavalry 1816-1919, volumes 7 and 8, by The Marquess of Anglesey FSA, pub 2013 and 2012 respectively, Pen & Sword Books

Doctrine and Reform in the British Cavalry 1880-1918, by Stephen Badsey, publ 2008, Ashgate

See also this article about another member of the 9^th Lancers "Vulture Party", the writer's grandfather

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