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Benjamin Arthur Richardson

Benjamin was born in Blaxhall in 1893 to Benjamin & Emma. Having left England for Australia around 1913 he was working as a farm hand near Sydney when the war broke out and he decided to answer the call.

In February 1916 new recruits from Australia were combined with the decimated survivors of the Churchill's disastrous Gallipoli campaign in order to form the new 54th Battalion, which went into action for the first time at Fromelles, in France, on the morning of the 19th of July. The ill-planned initial assault was a bloodbath, with the battalion and it's parent division suffering up to 65% casualties for little gain; the attack was called off the following morning.

Arthur went missing, declared dead, sometime during this 24 hour period, with his body presumed to be one of the 400 (all unrecognisable) interred at the VC Corner Australian Cemetery located on the road from Fromelles to Sailly.