Stanley Henry Arthur RIDOUT

(Extracts from Army records)

He served with the 1/25th Cyclist Battalion, The London Regiment from 9 December 1914 to 5 July 1919, enlisting at Fulham under Regimental number 740750 when he was aged just 17.

He served overseas from 3 February 1916 to 31 May 1919 (3 years 4 months) leaving England from Devonport on the HMS Ceramic, arriving in India at Bombay on 26 February 1916.

He was stationed at Bangalore from 28 February 1916 to 1 December 1916 and subsequently at Burhan.

He saw Field Service with the Waziristan Field Force from 26 May 1917 but was admitted to hospital at Haidaria Kach on 19 June followed by a transfer to the hospital at Tank. The records are not clear, so this could be the same as the Gharial event detailed below or another period of unspecified illness at around the same time.

He had several spells in hospital whilst in India - 30 days at Gharial in 1917 suffering from malaria complicated by jaundice and then 31 days at Jullundur with influenza resulting in severe pneumonia in 1918 whilst working as a Hospital Orderly. 
On his return to England in 1919, he was again hospitalised at the Cambridge Hospital in Aldershot for five days with pneumonia.

In 1917 he was diagnosed with colitis, but this did not immediately respond to treatment. It was subsequently found that a river in Waziristan on the North West Frontier which had been used as a supply of drinking water contained shards of mica. This transparent mineral is like glass and when swallowed cuts into the internal organs. He suffered from the effects of this throughout his life.

On 9 May 1919 he embarked for the UK on the HT Indarra at Bombay as he was declared to be unfit to stand another hot season in India. Nominal roll  - India to UK.

He was Disembodied on Demobilisation on 5 July 1919.

See Stanley's WW1 & WW2 documents.

In WW2 Stanley joined the RAF Military Police.

Wanganui, New Zealdand.