Richard Stazicker: Farm Labourer

Richard was the son of Richard Stazicker, a farm labourer, and his wife Mary (née Glover). He was born in Burscough on 16th April 1895 and baptised at St. John’s parish church. As a child Richard lived on Bescar Lane in Scarisbrick for several years. The family subsequently moved back to Burscough, living in Victoria Street and later at Red Cat Lane. Prior to the war Richard found employment as a carter, transporting agricultural produce.

Richard enlisted in Ormskirk with the 2/7th Battalion, The King’s (Liverpool) Regiment. This was formed in Bootle in 1914 originally as a “second line” territorial force designated for home service. However, when the Military Service Act was introduced in 1916 all men were deemed to have agreed to overseas service and all territorial units became available to be sent abroad. The battalion became part of

The spring and early summer of 1917 was the prelude to the Third Battle of Ypres, otherwise known simply as “Passchendaele”. Richard’s battalion was first entrenched at La Bouitillerie. They were not engaged in any major action but gained an introduction to trench warfare whilst both sides raided each other’s positions and tried to avoid snipers.
In June 1917 Richard’s battalion continued to hold the line at Armentieres, having moved to trenches in nearby Houplines. Five miles north of their position the opening action of the Third Battle of Ypres took place at Messines in Flanders. The Battle of Messines was notable for the detonation of a series of mines beneath German lines which devastated their front line defences. Meanwhile, the Armentieres sector came under particularly heavy artillery fire in which the 2/7th Battalion KLR lost ten men with over a hundred injured. This continued into July when it was particularly intense and was described