Richard Outhwaite was born in 1880 at Pannal, one of nine children born to Thomas and Charity Outhwaite. In 1911, he was employed as a joiner and was living with his widowed mother and four of his siblings at Brookfield Cottage, Pannal.
Richard voluntarily enlisted into the Royal Army Medical Corps on 1st March 1915 and was posted to 54th Field Ambulance. The unit embarked for France at Southampton on 24th July 1916, disembarking at Havre on the following day.
54th Field Ambulance was based at Gwalia Farm, north-east of Poperinghe, went it sent a stretcher-bearer division into the front line of the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) on 20th October 1917. Three days later, Richard was fatally wounded, most likely in an enemy gas-shell bombardment. He died at No. 61 (2/1st South Midland) Casualty Clearing Station, Dozinghem, on 26th October and was buried in Dozinghem Military Cemetery. The inscription on his headstone, chosen by his parents, reads TO MEMORY EVER DEAR.