|
|
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.
Site Home
Help & FAQs
Features
Submissions
Information
Advertisements
World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Pte. Hugh Elias Hughes
British Army 10th Battlion Royal Welsh Fusiliers
from:Oak Cottage, Llanrhos, Caernarfonshire, North Wales
Hugh Elias Hughes from Llanrhos in North Wales is mentioned in the nominal roll of 9th Queen's Royal Lancers as having joined the regiment in France on the 16th June 1916. At this time the 9th Lancers were preparing for the Somme Offensive and were to be used for the break-through (that never occurred). The battle of the Somme started on the 1st July with the men of the 9th being used as "vulture parties" to collect the dead and wounded from the battlefield, On the 4th of October 1916 Hugh was transferred to the 10th Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Hugh's younger brothers, Griffith and Ivor, were also serving in this Battalion, whilst their eldest sibling, William, was transferred from the 1/6th (Territorial) Battalion to the 1st Battalion of the Regiment in February 1917. On the 13th November 1916 (Battle of Ancre), Ivor was wounded during an assault on the village of Serre, being shot through the thigh. Sadly, less than a year later (2nd of October 1917) William was killed by a gunshot wound to the chest; he left a wife and two young children. Williams's injuries were sustained during a counter attack by the German 46th Reserve Battalion (consisting of 3 Battalions and 3 Sturmtruppe); the attack falling on the area of Polygon Wood covered by the 1st Battalion RWF and the 8th Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment. William would have first been taken to a field dressing station just behind the front line where morphine would have been administered and his wound dressed; from there he was evacuated to No. 3 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station at Poperinge where he finally succumbed to his wounds on the 2nd of October 1917. William's grave is in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery situated 12 kilometres west of the town of Leper in Belgium, grave reference number XXIV.F.12. William is also commemorated on his parent's memorial headstone in Llanrhos churchyard. Hugh Elias Hughes continued to serve with the 10th RWF until February 1918 when the Battalion was finally disbanded; he was then transferred to the 7th (Pioneer) Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment. It was whilst serving with this regiment that he was injured. The story the family passed down regarding his wounding, is that Hugh was in a dugout playing cards with four comrades; the dugout received a direct hit from a German artillery shell and all four of his pals were killed instantly. The rest of the dugout collapsed down onto Hugh but he was eventually pulled from the carnage suffering with severe head injuries and associated memory loss. The family may well have been informed that Hugh was missing because, as the story goes, Hugh's mother was convinced that he was still alive and sent a photograph of him to help with his identification. Eventually Hugh was identified and returned home to Llanrhos in December 1918. Unfortunately the tragedy does not end here, as after leaving the Army, Hugh suffered acutely from his head wound, any loud noise would result in panic, with him displaying the terrible character changing symptoms so often associated with severe head trauma and battle stress. In August 1920, Hugh and a former sailor called Thomas Henry Lewis decided to leave the Llandudno area to try and find work; so they walked to Chester, eventually finding temporary employment at Rake Lane farm in Eccleston. Following an unsuccessful attempt to gain work in the mines in Wrexham, Hugh found himself back in Chester, by now separated from Thomas and in in a very drunken and distressed state. Sadly, whilst in this condition Hugh threw himself from a bridge over the river Dee and drowned. Hugh's father Owen travelled to Chester to identify his son's body and give evidence at the inquest, the city coroner Mr E Brassey returned a verdict of "suicide whilst of unsound mind". Hugh is commemorated on his parent's memorial stone in Llanrhos churchyard and can be considered as much a victim of the Great War as his brother William.
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them
Did your relative live through the Great War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial?
If so please let us know.
Do you know the location of a Great War "Roll of Honour?"We are very keen to track down these often forgotten documents and obtain photographs and transcriptions of the names recorded so that they will be available for all to remember.
Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.
Celebrate your own Family History
Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Great War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.
Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.
The free section of The Wartime Memories Project is run by volunteers.
This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
The Wartime Memories Project Website
is archived for preservation by the British Library
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved -We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.
