Dickie Bond
Ann Franklin has submitted the following:-
Richard Nicholson Bond, known as ‘Dickie’ was born in High Green, Yorkshire in 1889 to George and Agnes Bond. The Bond family relocated to Dale Street, South Shields and they opened a fish smoke house on or near The Lawe.
On the 2nd June 1912, he married Annie Hurlbutt in South Shields. Their son Richard Hinman Bond was born in the spring of 1913. Whilst working in the family fish business, Dickie having received his ‘call up notice’, enlisted with the 11th Battalion Durham Light Infantry on the 15th November 1915.
From his attestation paper, it would seem Richard Bond departed for France on the 14th September 1916, where according to the 11th Battalion (Pioneers) DLI War Diaries, “the troops were digging trenches and repairing roads in the Mericourt/Talus Bois area. Here there was very little in the way of shelter, and consequently this resulted in daily injuries and casualties” during the latter part of September 1916.
The first few days of October saw the men located in ‘Tatler Trench’ where they were both improving and working on a new trench, whilst coming under heavy shelling, including gas attacks. On the 4th October 1916, whilst digging an assembly trench, the 11th Battalion lost 7 men and had 21 wounded.
On the 5th October 1916, at the age of 27, Private 32862 Richard Nicholson Bond, of the 11th Battalion DLI, died of his wounds. He is buried in Grove Town Cemetery (Grave Ref: 1M 34), Meaulte, Somme.
Richard Nicholson Bond is remembered at South Shields on S86.053 and S86.142
