Richard Lloyd Wade – Devonshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion

Private Richard Lloyd Wade – Devonshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion

Richard Lloyd Wade and Margaret Evans marriage ceritifcate St. Mary's Church, Swansea

Richard Lloyd Wade was born in 1896 in Swansea, the son of Richard Lloyd Wade and Margaret Evans, who had married in 1891 at St Mary’s Church, Swansea.

1901 Census

By the time of the 1901 Census, the Wade family were living at 10 Paxton Terrace, Swansea, where Richard L., aged 34, worked as a Dock Labourer, and his wife Margaret, aged 31, managed the home. Their children were Mildred Ellie, aged 9; Edward J., aged 6; Richard L., aged 5; and Winifred, aged 1, forming a young family typical of Swansea’s working‑class dockside communities.

1911 Census

By 1911, the family had moved to 44 Wellington Street, Swansea, and the household had grown considerably. Richard Lloyd, now 42, continued his work as a Dock Labourer, while Margaret, also 42, oversaw a busy home. Their sons Edward, aged 16, and Richard L., aged 15, were both employed as Errand Boys, contributing to the family income. The younger children — Winnie, aged 11; Griffith, aged 9; William, aged 6; Gladys, aged 3; and Alfred, aged 1 — all lived at home, reflecting the large, bustling households common in industrial Swansea before the First World War.

Richard Lloyd Wade
Ovillers Military Cemetery, Somme, France credit - findagrave

As a young man, Richard Lloyd Wade enlisted and served as a Private with the Devonshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion, a Regular Army battalion that had been on the Western Front since 1914. By the summer of 1916, the battalion was positioned opposite the heavily fortified German defences near Ovillers‑la‑Boisselle, preparing for its role in the opening assault of the Battle of the Somme. At 7.30 a.m. on 1 July 1916, the 2nd Devons advanced across the exposed ground of Mash Valley, immediately encountering devastating machine‑gun fire from the German lines. Entire companies were cut down within minutes, and the battalion suffered catastrophic losses in the opening phase of the attack. Among those killed that morning was Private Richard Lloyd Wade, who fell in the first moments of the assault.

Unlike many of his comrades who have no known grave, Richard Lloyd Wade was recovered and laid to rest at Ovillers Military Cemetery, Somme, France — a burial ground created after the fighting subsided, where the dead from the surrounding battlefield were gathered and honoured. Though the surviving details of his life are limited, his name endures in the quiet rows of Ovillers and in the history of the 2nd Devons, whose courage and sacrifice on that first terrible day of July 1916 remain among the most solemn chapters of the Great War.