221134 Pte. Frederick William "Fred" Richardson British Army 18th Btn. London Regiment from:London My father, Frederick William Richardson, was born the eldest of 12 in South London on 27th Sep 1899. He served in the the 18 Battalion, London Irish Rifles. He landed at Le Havre in France and on 27th August 1918 was severely wounded in the head by shrapnel from a bursting shell. He was unconscious in the field hospital after rescue and had an operation to remove some of the shrapnel. My father was repatriated and operated on (trepanned) but not all the shrapnel could be removed as it was in the brain and adjacent. He convalesced at Roehampton as a bluecoat. His father was also serving in France. Same name aged 39 (He had been a boxer, champion of England)in his youth and gave exhibition boxing bouts to the troops.) He was notified of my father's injuries and had to hitchhike to the field hospital.
He married my mother in 1927 but suffered all his life from the brain injury and the shrapnel which moved from time to time. He suffered from Jacksonian epilepsy all his life regularly fitting and eventually received a 100% disability pension. When I was 17 he had 101 consecutive epileptic fits and from then on was hospitalised. He was in Headington Hill Hall, Oxford and later the Queen Alexandra nursing home for service personnel in Worthing.
He died aged 70 in 1969, with little memory left. A sad end to a brave volunteer infantryman, so young at his enlistment. I feel he was ill served during his life and my mother had to work to support the poor pension and to care for him as he became more and more dependant.
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