361: Samuel Francis Riley (diary)

Samuel Riley, the contributor's grandfather, saw action during the Boer War with the 1st Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment. After starting the First World War as a captain in the Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars, he was transferred to the 2nd Reserve Calvary Regiment, then the Machine Gun Corps before being commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps, in which he rose to be a temporary captain and an officer. After serving in Germany, Riley stayed to man the Rhine Army Dairy Farm until 1925 when he returned to England. His granddaughter recalls that he was devastated when the Army refused to recruit him during the Second World War despite his age (he turned 60 before war broke out). Samuel Riley died in June 1944 and is buried in Sedlescombe near Battle, East Sussex.

The digitized items also include a handkerchief owned by a Charles Thompson who presumably served in France during 1916.