Guardsman Richard Banks
7799 2nd Coldstream Guards
Killed in Action 11th November 1914, aged 32
Lived in Sherbourne, Dorset
Buried in Sanctuary Wood Cemetery, Belgium
Also Commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Belgium

AN OLD BOY KILLED (Burnley Express 2nd December 1914)

An old Burnley Grammar School scholarship winner has been killed in action. Through his wife, now living in Dorsetshire, Mrs. Banks, of 30 Marlborough-street, Burnley, has received news that her son, Pte. Richard Banks, of the Coldstream Guards, was killed in action about November 11th. He was 32 years of age, and enlisted some six years ago. Prior to that he had been employed as a book-keeper at the Lancashire and Yorkshire Tobacco Factory, Burnley. After that he went into business at Kidderminster, and later joined the Army. He leaves a widow and two children. Pte. banks was very well known in Burnley up to the time of his removal. As a boy he won an entrance scholarship to the Burnley Grammar School from Red Lion-street Day School, and was at the Grammar School two years.
The news was conveyed in a letter from Mrs. banks, and from this it was learned that the deceased soldier was killed on November 11th at Beytel, in Belgium.
In a letter received at Burnley from him on the day that his death took place. Pte. Banks who had been all through from Mons to the then position of affairs said " I think the Germans have seen the highest point of their progress and from now forward, if we could have a little more weight on our flank, things will move. " He thought that when the rout did come it would be a rush