Person

In July 1916, the 31st Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) arrived in France. After just three days in the trenches, the men found themselves sent into the attack around the area of Fromelles in the Somme Valley. Amongst them was Richard (Dick) Houghton, born and raised in Brandon. He was badly injured on the first day of the battle and subsequently died of his wounds.

Dick was born in Brandon Colliery late in 1893, where his father, Andrew, was a miner from Haswell. With his sister, Elizabeth, and his little brother, Will, Dick attended Langley Moor Board School, before going to work in the pit with his dad, where he became a colliery blacksmith.

In 1913, the whole family left for a new life in Australia. Their dad left first to set up the family home, followed by Dick and Will with their mother, Mary Lizzie, in June of that year. Elizabeth and her husband, Ralph Coates, and their baby daughter, Evelyn, arrived in the October. The family settled in Wollongong, New South Wales (NSW), where Dick found work as a carpenter.

With his brother, Will, Dick decided to join the Australian Army and on 28 August 1915. He enlisted as a private in the 4th Reinforcements of the 31st (Infantry) Battalion of the AIF.

On 14 March 1916, Dick joined other recruits on the “Anchises”; they embarked at Melbourne for Suez where further training took place. He joined his unit on Duntroon Plateau in the Sinai Desert near the Suez Canal on 20 April, but three weeks later was sent to the 14th Australian Field Ambulance suffering with a septic jaw. He was discharged nine days later and his unit left Alexandria for Marseilles soon after.

Despite just three days’ experience in the trenches, the 31st Battalion were sent into the attack on 19 June 1916. They were in the sector of the Somme Valley near Fromelles where there had been a heavy bombardment from both armies throughout the day. The Battalion was ordered to attack at 6pm that day, and suffered terrible losses in the assault, with 572 casualties (half of its strength).
Dick was among those 572 casualties.

In the chaos of battle, he was initially listed as missing in action, but, the following day, he was confirmed as being among the injured, with a compound fracture of his elbow, the result of being caught in machine gun fire. He was admitted to the Stationary Hospital in Wimereux before being evacuated to the hospital ship “St Denis” in Boulogne on 23 July.

Dick finally arrived at the Bevan Military Hospital in Sandgate, Kent where, on 5 August, he died of his wounds. The cause of death was given as an embolism.

The Houghtons still had family in County Durham and Dick’s aunt, Mrs White, living in Hetton-le-Hole, set out to visit him. But even as she was leaving, a telegram arrived, to advise that Dick had died. She arranged for Dick’s body to be brought back home and he was buried in a private ceremony in the cemetery in Hetton-le-Hole, on 10 August 1916.

Dick’s name is still honoured in Wollongong, NSW, where he is listed with his brother on the Keiraville District Honour Roll in the Illawara Museum and on the Honour Roll of the Keiraville Mechanics Institute.

Civil Parish: Brandon and Byshottles

Birth date: 1893

Death date: 05-Aug-1916

Armed force/civilian: Army

Residence: 25 Princess Street, Brandon (Brandon & Byshottles, ecclesiastical parish of St John the Evangelist 1901 census)
28 High Street, Langley Moor (1911 census)
Gray Street, Keiraville, Wollongong, NSW (1915 attestation papers)

Education: Langley Moor Board School

Employment: Colliery Blacksmith, Carpenter

Family: Parents: Andrew Houghton (b 1866), Mary Lizzie Houghton (nee Hayton) (b 1867)
Siblings: Elizabeth Houghton (later Mrs Coates) (b 1892), William (Will) (b 1897)
Aunt: Mrs White

Military service:

Service Number 2340
Private
31st Battalion, AIF

Medal(s): British War Medal
Victory Medal

Memorial(s): Keiraville District Honour Roll in the Illawara Museum, Wollongong
Honour Roll in Keiraville Mechanics Institute, Wollongong

Gender: Male

Contributed by Kelloe Visitor, Trimdon Station