Richard Meanley Anson, wearing the uniform of the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles, British Columbia Regiment, in 1915 or 1916. Image from Desmond Burton’s paper.

Long term readers will no doubt remember the fascinating and remarkable story of Arthur Burton, a local Great War hero, whose story was told by David Evans and Desmond Burton in the early days of this blog.

Desmond got in touch with me a couple of weeks ago and asked if I’d be happy to run his latest piece of research on the subject of a chap called Richard Anson, a neighbour of Arthur in Rushall, who sadly gave his life in battle on the Somme in September 1916.

Desmond has some additional questions he’d like help with: he’d like to trace any surviving relatives of Richard, and he’s also trying to contact a researcher called Paul Heath who also appeared to be researching the same family.

Can you help?

This truly is a wonderfully thorough and beautifully presented piece of work, which I commend you to read: rather than break this beautiful document, I’ve kept it as a PDF file and you can download a copy yourself from the below link:

Richard Anson Biography PDF – 2.6 megabytes

I thank Desmond for this, which I’ve deliberately held off until the Bank Holiday afternoon, when I know a lot of the blog researchers will be sat twiddling their thumbs… it is an honour to share work of this quality with the readership. Thank you.

Desmond Burton wrote:

Dear Bob

Hope you are keeping well. I’m sure you will remember posting the WW1 story of Arthur Burton two or three years ago, and I thought you might be interested in the attached article about Richard Meanley Anson, which is now also on the Stonnall History website. Please feel free to use bits or all of it, or a link to it on the website, or whatever. Any comments and corrections are always welcome, too.

Richard Anson grew up as a friend and neighbour of Arthur Burton in Rushall. Both fought in WW1 but not together. In the same week in September 1916 that Arthur returned home wounded but alive, Richard Anson was killed at the Somme. In 1919 Richard’s younger sister Edna Anson married Arthur’s elder brother Garnet Burton. Garnet and Edna were, as you will recall, my grandparents.

I believe that Richard Anson still has descendants in the Midlands (through his younger brother Bernard, who lived at Whitacre Farm for many years), but I haven’t been able to trace them. Also, I saw a request for information about the family from someone called Paul Heath, and I haven’t been able to trace him, either – you’ll see that I’ve reprinted it on the last page of the article. I wonder if a bit of publicity through your blog might help. Any help much appreciated!

Kind regards,
Desmond

Thank you Desmond. If you can help with this enquiry, please do: and if not, just revel in a beautiful piece of research into another local lad who gave everything for his country.

Please do comment here, or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com.