WW1 War medal; 2nd Lieut Paul Riley Lancashire Fusiliers. K.I.A Passchendaele

Second Lieutenant Paul Riley trained in the ranks of the Artists Rifles, an officer-training unit, before being commissioned into the Lancashire Fusiliers. He was killed in action at Passchendaele on 10 October 1917 and has no known grave. His medals were later claimed by a Mrs H. M. Riley living in Algiers.

What the medal index card says

• First unit: 28th London Regiment, which was the Artists Rifles, as a private, number 762070. The 76xxxx numbers were given to Artists Rifles men in the 1917 renumbering. Many men passed through that unit on their way to a commission.
• Commission: 2nd Lieutenant, Lancashire Fusiliers. The date looks like 12/1/17. 
• He was entitled to a pair only.
• Theatre: France. The date of entry is left blank, so he went out after 1915. That is why there is no star.
• Remarks: "K in A 10/10/17" means killed in action. The long number (NW/7/144453) and the 1922 dates are office references for the medal claim.

Where and how he died

The CWGC lists him only as "8th Bn." The date and the Tyne Cot panels fit the 2/8th Lancashire Fusiliers closely. That battalion was in 197th Brigade, 66th Division, which attacked at 5.20 am on 9 October at the Battle of Poelcappelle, with the 2/6th and 2/8th taking over the attack after the 3/5th. The ground they attacked over is what is now Tyne Cot cemetery. The 2/8th took heavy casualties on 9 October. On the 10th, the day he died, the brigade's positions were heavily shelled until evening, another German counterattack was beaten off, and that night the division was relieved by the 3rd Australian Division. He may have been wounded on the 9th and died the next day, or been killed in the shelling on the 10th. His battalion is the likely one but not confirmed.

The Algiers connection

The correspondence form was printed in December 1921, and the card is stamped February 1922. So in 1922 Mrs H. M. Riley was living at 84 Route Malakoff, St Eugène. St Eugène is a seaside suburb just west of Algiers, now called Bologhine. The card doesn't say whether she was his mother or his widow. medal was probably posted to Algeria.