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Alonzo Ward Rider was born in Plymouth, Devon, in 1896. He enlisted as a Private into 1st Battalion Berkshire Yeomanry on 16 September 1914. He served with the regiment as part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force from April 1915.
He reported missing in action in Gallipoli on 21 August 1915, but was admitted to hospital at Mudros the following month with blood poisoning.
In September 1916 he was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Machine Gun Corps. He was serving with 26th Company M.G.C. on the Western Front when he was reported missing in action again, on 12 October 1917. This time he did not return -- a letter written by his mother, dated 4 May 1918, gives the following detail:
'The commanding officer (Capt Rigby) wrote at the time and said my son went to some prisoners to tell them to take our wounded on stretchers and was not seen again'.
With no known grave, Rider is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial.
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