Richard+Bryer

Richard was on the born 28th March 1878 Markeaton Derbyshire. He was the son of George and Milly Bryer. The 1881 census records that George was a farmer and he lived with his wife and their 9 children in Markeaton, Richard being the youngest at the time. The farm was of 250 acres and George employed 9 men and 3 boys to run it. By 1891, 12 year old Richard was living with his elder brother William who was a farmer in his own right in Markeaton with his sister Florence acting as the housekeeper. Richard was still at school and the census records him as a scholar. The 1901 census records Richard as a farmer’s son working back with his elderly father. Sometime around September 1906 he met and married Edith Willatt, the daughter of Herbert and Ellen Willatt of 117 Kedleston Road, Derby. The 1901 census records Ethel as a “Pupil Teacher”. On the 7th March 1913, Richard and his wife sailed to Canada on the SS Grampian landing in Halifax Nova Scotia. He probably went there to start a new life where land was plentiful for a young farmer and his wife. Soon after, they had a child but no further details have been discovered. At the outbreak of the war, the sense of duty to King and Country was so great, that Richard put his dreams of a better life behind him and joined the Canadian Infantry. The next record we have of Richard comes from a report from the Derby Daily Telegraph, 17 October 1916
 * Richard Bryer (1878-1916)**

**A DERBY CANADIAN KILLED**

//News has reached Derby that Private Richard Bryer, youngest son of the late Mr George Bryer, farmer, of Markeaton, has been killed in action in France. Aged 38, he learned farming with his father, and went out to Canada three years ago to settle. He joined an infantry battalion in the Dominion in the early days of the war, and had been at the front several months. He was killed on Sept. 16. Dick Bryer, as he was familiarly known, had heaps of friends in this district, who will learn of his death with profound sorrow. He leaves a widow, who is the daughter of the late Mr H Willatt, of Derby, and one child.// The Commonwealth War Graves records that Private Richard Bryer Service Number 439009, of the 52nd Battalion of the Canadian Infantry was killed on the 16th September, 1916. Richard has no grave and his name is recorded on the Vimy Ridge Memorial. After the war, the highest point of the ridge was chosen as the site of the great memorial to all Canadians who served their country in battle during the First World War, and particularly to the 60,000 who gave their lives in France. It also bears the names of 11,000 Canadian servicemen who died in France - many of them in the fight for Vimy Ridge - who have no known grave.


 * Back to Memorial**