Boucher, Richard
Private
No. 23663, 1st Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
Killed in action on Saturday 1 July 1916 (aged 23)
No known grave
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Thiepval Memorial, France (Pier and Face 4 D and 5 B)
Newtownards and District War Memorial
Regent Street Methodist Church Newtownards
BIOGRAPHY
In some records his surname is spelt Butcher.
Richard Boucher was born on 28 December 1892 in Windmill Row, Newtownards and he was a son of William and Elizabeth (Eliza or Lizzie) Boucher (nee Neill) who were married on 20 April 1889 in Regent Street Methodist Church Newtownards. William Boucher, a cleaner from Windmill Row, Newtownards was a son of Richard Boucher, a weaver. Lizzie Neill from East Street, Newtownards was a daughter of Robert Neill.
The Boucher family lived in Newtownards, in Windmill Row, in East Street and later at 7 Canal Row.
William Boucher worked as a labourer on the railway and he and Eliza had nine children:
Elizabeth (born 3 April 1890 in Windmill Row, Newtownards)
Robert (born 27 July 1891 in Windmill Row, Newtownards)
Richard (born 28 December 1892 in Windmill Row, Newtownards)
Isabella (born 5 December 1894 in East Street, Newtownards)
Sarah (born 23 November 1896 in East Street, Newtownards)
Jane (born 22 December 1897 in East Street, Newtownards)
Agnes (born 3 June 1901 in East Street, Newtownards)
James (born 30 September 1903 in East Street, Newtownards)
Marion (born 25 November 1904 in East Street, Newtownards)
Prior to the outbreak of the Great War Richard Boucher worked as a machine printer and after enlisting in Newtownards he served with the 1st Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.
Private Richard Boucher (No. 23663) went to Gallipoli on 17 October 1915 and he served there with 87th Brigade of the 29th Division before going to France.
Private Richard Boucher (No. 23663) was 23 when he was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of the Somme and in January 1917 his father, mother, brothers and sisters placed a For King and Country notice in the Newtownards Chronicle.
It contained the verse:
Although we’re in a far-off land,
And your grave we cannot see;
As long as life and memory lasts,
We shall remember thee.
Private Richard Boucher (No. 23663) has no known grave and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial in France; on Newtownards and District War Memorial and in Regent Street Methodist Church Newtownards.