James Richer

James Stanley Richer was born on 4 July 1836, and enlisted into the 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade in 1854, transferring to the 3rd Battalion as Corporal on its formation 4 April 1855.

He served at the siege of Lucknow in 1857, in the Oude campaign in 1858, and at Shabkadr in 1864.

Having become Regimental Sergeant-Major in 1867, he was commissioned as Quartermaster in 1875 and as Lieutenant in 1880. He received his L.S. & G.C. medal in March 1873 and retired in 1883 with the honorary rank of Major.

On leaving the Army Major Richer worked first for the London Tramways Company and then for the Army & Navy Auxiliary Stores.

On 25 February 1899, Major James Richer, late Sergeant-Major, 3rd Rifle Brigade, was a casualty of the first recorded motor accident in Great Britain in a petrol drive car which occurred at the foot of Grove Hill, Harrow-on-the-Hill, when the Daimler Wagonette driven by Edwin Sewell overturned after the collapse of a rear wheel. Sewell was pitched out and killed whilst his passenger, Major Richer, was pinned to the ground under the car and died of his injuries on 1 March.

1899 25 February. Edwin Sewell and Major James Richer (Department head of the Army and Navy Store) are the first recorded driver and passenger fatalities respectively. They are thrown from their Daimler on Grove Hill, Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex, London.

Notes

• See Bridget Driscoll for the first pedestrian fatality by a motor vehicle
• See Henry Lindfield for the first electric vehicle fatality
• See Edwin Sewell and James Richer for the first petrol motor vehicle fatalities
• See Nina McLeod for an early passenger fatality

See Also

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