John Harold Ellerson Rickerby MC

John was born in Cheltenham on 15th October 1895. His father was Major Thomas Ellerson Rickerby, Cheltenham’s Army Recruiting Officer and a Territorial Officer and his mother was Alice Emily. The family lived at ‘Hafod’, Shurdington Road.

Major Rickerby, John’s father, was a partner in the legal practice of Rickerby & Co at 2 Ormond Place, later moving to 16 Royal Crescent, which had been established in 1796. Today the company continues as Harrison, Clark, Rickerbys – the Cheltenham branch being at Ellenborough House in Wellington Street.

John attended Cheltenham College and had intended to go up to Pembroke College, Cambridge but enlisted and was appointed to a Territorial Force Commission as a 2nd Lieutenant on 26th September 1914 at 18 years of age. He joined the 2/5th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment when it was formed and was promoted in April 1915 to Lieutenant and 23rd May 1916 as a Temporary Captain at the age of 21 years, being appointed Captain on 17th March 1917.

Thus when John went to France with his unit on 25th May 1916 he was a Captain and Commander of ‘A’ Company of the battalion. In July 1916 he was awarded the Military Cross for his part in the action at Aubers Ridge when, during heavy German bombardment of the Duck’s Bill Crater, he moved his men from the front line into the crater to protect them from bombardment. The award citation in the London Gazette states: “For conspicuous gallantry…when his signallers had all become casualties he went himself under fire to the signal dugout to ask for reinforcements. On his return he beat off another attack by machine-gun fire and then counter-attacked with the bayonet.”

John was awarded a second medal – the Italian government’s Silver Medal for Valour – on 26th May 1917. Ernest Hemingway was also awarded this medal whilst an ambulance driver in 1918.

The day he died, 22nd March 1918, John’s battalion was stationed in the Battle Zone at Holnon Wood, to the west of St Quentin. During that day they were pushed back to incomplete, shallow and meagrely wired trenches at Beauvois. At about 6pm large numbers of Germans were seen advancing from Holnon Wood and moving in attack formation towards Beauvois and, after a short sharp bombardment, assaulted the battalion’s positions.

It was during this bombardment that John Rickerby was hit by a shell and died of his wounds. As his body was not found he was reported wounded and missing. His body was subsequently found and he is buried in Savy British Cemetery.

The book The Story of The 2/5th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment 1914-1918, by A F Barnes, MC, calls John’s death a disaster to the battalion. Barnes write, “He was a type to whom clean life and hard living are part of a deep religion. To these attributes he added a capacity for detail and an instinct for soldiering that made him a leader among others. Possessing a stern sense of duty and full of joy of living, yet completely regardless of death, he was the ideal Company Commander.” He was 22 years old.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in The British Campaign in France and Flanders January to July 1918 writes of the tenacity and determination of the 2/5th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment and John is mentioned by name.

He is commemorated on the Cheltenham war memorial, the St. James’ Church, Cheltenham Roll of Honour, the Cheltenham College Roll of Honour and the St. Paul’s Church, Shurdington, Roll of Honour.