Private Richard Annesley West
Number: 9697
Company: 45th (Dublin) Company, 13th Battalion, First Contingent
ENLISTMENT
Date: 8 January 1900
Place: Newbridge
Age: 21 years 3 months
Trade or calling: Nil. Has been student at agricultural college.
Place of birth: In the Parish of __, in or near the Town of Cheltenham, in the County of Glucestershire
Family: Single. Father Augustus George West, landowner and former army officer, mother Sara West (nee Eyre), of Whitepark, County Fermanagh.
Previous military service: No
Description: Height 6' 0 1/4". Fair complexion, grey/blue eyes, dark/brown hair.
Religion: Other Protestant
ACTIVE SERVICE
Date to South Africa: 13 March 1900
Date home: 5 March 1901
Actions: Lindley, Dewetsdorp, Reddersburg
Service medal clasps and other awards: Queen's South Africa Medal; King's South Africa Medal. Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, 1901, 1902 clasps.
DISCHARGE
Date: 3 April 1901
Place: Shorncliffe
Reason for discharge: At own request
Intended place of residence: Brookboro County Fermanagh
Conduct: Very good
Special qualifications: Farmer
West was among the 400 men captured by Boer forces at Lindley in May 1900. He was released on 30 August with the other members of the 13th Battalion when the British captured Nooitgedacht.
He is mentioned in in an article, published in The Irish Field on 30 March 1901, describing the Battalion's march from Lindley to Nooitgedacht:
On the 13th June we arrived at Standerton ... That night we slept in railway carriages, which were lying in the station. West and Gibson of ours, who were seedy, "went sick," and were sent to hospital, where they were well treated and left behind on our resuming our march next day. ...
[On Friday 22nd or soon after] At Carolina, our next big halt, we were rejoined by those who were left behind sick in Standerton - West and Gibson of ours, and some of the D.C.O.'s, who had followed us up in mule waggons.
He was mentioned by the same writer in a list of members of the 45th Company who took part in operations in the Orange Free State from late 1900 until the unit was disbanded on 4 March 1901.
From 25 July 1901 to 31 May 1902 he served in South Africa as an NCO then Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion, Kitchener's Fighting Scouts. He was subsequently employed as a superintendent in the Transvaal Repatriation Department, and for eight years as assistant adjutant of the Transvaal Horse Artillery Volunteers.
West served in World War 1 in the North Irish Horse, the North Somerset Yeomanry and the Tank Corps, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was awarded a Victoria Cross, DSO and Bar, a Military Cross, and was three times Mentioned in Despatches. He was killed in action on 2 September 1918. Further information can be found here.
This page last updated 22 February 2026.