Category Archives: Other Regiments

Lionel Flaxman Hotson

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Somme

Lionel Flaxman Hotson
Private 307710
1st/8th Batt. Royal Warwickshire Regt.

Division 2

Lionel Flaxman Hotson was the son of William and Caroline Flaxman Hotson, of 30 Highgrove Street, Reading.  He died on the 27th August 1916 and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing. Pier and Face  9A, 9B and 10B.

Lionel Flaxman Hotson is remembered  on the headstone of his parents grave.  The grave location, using the notation of the Berkshire Family History Society, is 2E9. It is believed that Lionel was the eldest of four children, he had a younger brother and two younger sisters. His father had owned his own grocery and provisions business. The family moved to Reading from Essex where Lionel had been born.

The details pertaining to  the death of Lionel Flaxman Hotson are not known.  His battalion was one which suffered very high casualties on the first day of the Somme as they fought along the line of the Serre road, just north of Hawthorn Ridge.  The battalion casualties numbered 588 names.   The 1st/8th had been attached to the 4th Division on the 1st July, their own Division the 46th fared little better being used in the diversionary attack at Gommecourt.

On the 2nd July the 46th Division returned to normal trench warfare.  The war of attrition of the Somme battles with attack and counterattack, continued throughout the summer until mid November.  Whatever the action that Lionel Flaxman Hotson found himself in when he was killed at the age of 18, he became one of the 73,367 men with no known grave as a result of these battles.

James William Hewitt

Alfred Sutton School War Memorial, Army, Other Regiments, Passchendaele

Private 31858 “A” Company
6th Battalion Wiltshire Regiment

Hewett JW photo

James Hewett (known as Jim) was aged 19 years when he died of wounds on 18th November 1917.   His unit , part of the 19th Division, had fought from early June in the Battle of Messines until 10 November 1917 during the Second Battle of Passchendael. At that point the 19th Division was withdrawn and not involved in any furthr fighting until the following spring.  It is not know when James Hewitt received his injuries or their extent. He died in Abbeville where there were three hospitals and he is buried at Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension, location III.E.7.  The Extension was started during July 1916. Abbeville was for most of the war the headquarters of the British Lines of Communication.

 His parents Mr and Mrs J. Hewett lived at 65 Grange Avenue.  An In Memoriam November 15th 1919 refers to mother, father, brothers and sisters.

Oliver Luther Hawkins

Abbey Baptist Church, Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Reading School War Memorial, Ypres

Oliver Luther Hawkins
Second Lieutenant
3rd Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment.

 Division 29

Hawkins OL photo  CIMG2096

Oliver Luther Hawkins was the son of William Slade Hawkins and is commemorated on the family grave on the corner of the division next to the boundary wall.  He died of wounds during April 1915.  The date of death on the cemetery headstone is 23rd April 1915, that of the CWGC register 26th April 1915.  He was aged 22.

Oliver Hawkins is buried at Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery, North France. Location II.E.28.   Hazebrouck, is a town about 56 kilometres from Calais and is easily reached.  From October 1914 to September 1917 Casualty Clearing Stations were posted at Hazebrouck.   Although, from September 1917 to September 1918, enemy shelling rendered the town unsafe for hospitals.

It is likely that Oliver Hawkins had gone through the initial parts of the usual evacuation process of the wounded but succumbed to his injuries before reaching a base hospital.  The Second Battle of Ypres was taking place at the time of his death. 

The 1901 census indicates that the family lived at 97 London Road, his father was a private secretary. He had one sister and three brothers. The 1911 census indiates that he was a border in School House, Reading School.  At Reading School Oliver was a popular sportsman and gifted student.  He won the Lord Roberts prize and distinctions in cricket and football.  Oliver studied for a time at Marburg University, Germany and in 1913 went to Jesus College, Cambridge.   Whilst at Cambridge he joined the OTC and obtained a commission. The headstone of the family grave bears sad testimony to the early deaths of several family members.  His father died in November 1915.