Henry Burnleigh Richards lived at 24 Bullock Road, Catford. He was single and his Military Service Record shows his father as his next of kin. Henry worked as a jeweller's assistant and was a member of the International Bible Students Association, a corporation founded in 1914 in London to promote the interests of Jehovah's Witnesses.

No records have been found showing that he appeared before a local Military Service Tribunal and was refused exemption, though this may have happened, he may also have been an absentee and have been arrested for not attending his recruiting office. Whatever the sequence of events Henry's Military Service Record, which is marked CO, shows that he was conscripted into the 112 Training Reserve Battalion at Camberwell Recruiting Office on 2 August 1917. Four days later on 6 August he was court-martialled at Wimbledon suggesting that he immediately refused to obey orders; often the first refusal by a conscientious objector was the refusal to wear a uniform or to stand to attention when spoken to.

Henry was sentenced to 2 years hard labour and sent to Wormwood Scrubs prison. At the Military Service Central Tribunal at Wormwood Scrubs on 24 September 1917 he was deemed to be a genuine conscientious objector on religious grounds (Class A) and was referred to the Brace Committee (Home Office Scheme) on 6 November, 1917. On 8 November Henry was released from Wormwood Scrubs, transferred to the Army Reserve Class W*, and sent to Knutsford Work Camp.

*Army Reserve Class W seems to have been used by the Military for CO's who had not been posted to an active service unit to ensure that in the event of the CO rejecting or being rejected by the scheme they could be recalled to "the colours" and be subjected again to military discipline, effectively a round of courts-martial and imprisonment. While remaining in this Reserve Unit they were not subjected to military discipline nor did they have to wear a uniform.

Henry died in June 1980 aged 94 in Worthing, West Sussex.

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