A BRIEF HISTORY
Pte. Ralph Howells, born 20th November 1898, eldest son of Blanche and Thomas Howells came from a modest mining family in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.
Attending school in their local village of Lydbrook, Ralph would have left at a young age to start work in one of the several coal mines that were dotted along the valley.
At the age of 16 on the 5th December 1914 Ralph enlisted at the Drill Hall in Hereford, volunteering for overseas action. Like many young men at the time Ralph would have been captivated with the heroic status he would gain fighting for his country and the chance to travel abroad, anything to escape the dangerous job of coal mining.
Due to Ralph’s mining experience he spent the majority of his army career in Britain with the 2nd (Reserve) Battalion The Herefordshire Regiment, where he started in Aberystwyth, moving onto Billericay where he helped build North London defences and then ending up in Lowestoft in November 1915.
Ralph was then transferred to the 1st/5th Battalion The Cheshire Regiment on the 27th July 1916 and left from Southampton the same day.
As a Pioneer Ralph’s job was to build and repair sections of trenches throughout the night. During his shift on the 8th September 1916 Ralph and four other men who were working in a communication trench were buried alive when a shell fell into it. Ralph’s body was never found and he was reported missing presumed dead.
Ralph was only 17 when he was killed yet his memory lives on. He is commemorated on the Thiepval War Memorial in France and in his local town of Ruardean.
Written by Abigail Lightstone - Great Great niece of Ralph Howells