MAJOR STUART HAMILTON RICKMAN
RIFLE BRIGADE
27TH AUGUST 1914 AGE 42
BURIED: FONTAINE-AU-PIRE COMMUNAL CEMETERY, FRANCE
Major Rickman was a professional soldier who had seen extensive action in South Africa, the North West Frontier and West Africa. Home on leave from India when the war broke out, he was appointed Second-in-Command of the 1st Battalion the Rifle Brigade and went with them to France on 21 August. Four days later he was mortally wounded at Le Cateau. He died the following day.
According to a comtemporary, "None saw Major Rickman dead. He was dangerously wounded gallantly commanding the rearguard of our retirement on the afternoon of 26 Aug. and he was left, of course, where he fell." He died later in German hands and they buried him in the cemetery at Fontaine-au-Pire, marking his grave with a wooden cross that correctly gives his name but incorrectly describes him as 'engl. Kapitaine'. Major Rickman's grave marker now hangs on the wall in St Mary's Church, Childrey, where his mother lived.