Lives of the First World War

RICHARD JOSEPH HOWKINS was serving as a Trooper with Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars when he died of wounds received on 22nd August 1918 aged of 20. He is buried at the Commonwealth grave at Niederzwehren near the German city of Kassel. Richard Howkins was born in 1898 in Upper Tadmarton to parents Thomas and Sophia Howkins. He had three elder brothers Ernest, George and John all of whom served their country. By 1911 Ernest and George had left home and Richard, at the age of 13 was working as a farm labourer. He enlisted in the Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars and in 1918 he was wounded at the second Battle of the Somme and captured by the Germans. He died of his wounds in captivity. The Second Battle of the Somme was launched on 21st August 1918, and was part of a series of successful counter-offensives in response to the German Spring offensive.

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