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7th Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment
Raymond Armes was born in 1878 in Kings Lynn, the youngest of three sons of William and Sarah Armes. His brothers were: William Morriss (known as Morriss), who lost his life serving with the Suffolk Regiment and is also remembered on the Sudbury War Memorial and Reginald John, who joined his brother to serve with the North Staffordshire Regiment and survived the war.
In 1911 Raymond was living at Chilton Hall, Chilton, Sudbury with his brother Morriss and sister Kathleen. He was a member of the Sudbury Conservative Club and his name was recorded on their Roll of Honour.
Raymond was already a seasoned soldier as he had served in the Boer War in South Africa, been taken prisoner and escaped in August 1900 and been invalided home through dysentery. His service record with the Imperial Yeomanry Service (6832) describes him as 5ft 10 ins in height with brown eyes and brown hair. He was awarded The Queen’s South Africa Medal with clasps for Cape Colony, Orange Free State and Transvaal.
Raymond was well known for his love of music and he played the organ at Foxearth Church and was an assistant organist at St. Peter’s Church in Sudbury. He also played football for Sudbury United, appearing in a photo of the 1905/6 team as their Captain alongside another casualty of the war – Harry Malyon. A report after his death in the Suffolk and Essex Free Press quotes ‘He was a good horseman and all-round athlete, strongly built and vigorous, formerly well known on the running and cycling path and in Association football, he and his two brothers having all played at one time or another for the county, while the local team was never stronger than during their time on the field’.
Raymond cycled to Ipswich to enlist just a few days after the outbreak of war. He became a sergeant in the Mechanical Transport in the Army Service Corps M/1602. He was soon promoted to Captain and transferred to the 7th Battalion, Staffordshire Regiment in January 1915. Like his brother he served in the Gallipoli campaign, before being invalided to Malta, then home.
Raymond also had a keen interest in flying and in December 1915 was taken on his first flight by Lt. G. B. Ward from Foxearth.
The following year Raymond was back in action in Mesopotamia, then part of the Ottoman Empire and now known as Iraq. He was killed in action on 9 April 1916 aged 37 taking part in an unsuccessful attempt to reach 9,000 starving British and Indian troops besieged at Al Kut. There is no known grave, and he is remembered on the Basra Memorial, Iraq. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
Raymond is also remembered on the Chilton Church Memorial and a memorial window in St. Gregory’s Church.
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