Category Archives: Battlefield Areas

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.

Kenneth John Hinde

Australian, Commemorated name/s, Dardanelles

Kenneth John Hinde
Second Lieutenant
3rd Battalion Australian Infantry, A.I.F.

Division 68
Extension

Kenneth John Hinde, was the son of Surgeon Major General George Langford Hinde, C.B. and Frances Mary Crawford Hinde.  He was a native of Dover. He is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Panel 8. 

Casualty Record Detail

 

Kenneth Hinde died on 15th May 1915 on board H.M. Transport ’Gloucester Castle’, of wounds received in the head during fighting in Gallipoli.  He was buried at sea near Alexandria.  He is commemorated on his parents’ grave in Reading Cemetery.  Berkshire Family History Society classification 68C26 and on the Lone Pine Memorial, panel 19.

 The Lone Pine Memorial at the end of the Lone Pine Cemetery is inscribed with the following words.

Casualty Record Detail

TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN LASTING MEMORIAL OF 3,268 AUSTRALIAN SOLDIERS WHO FOUGHT ON GALLIPOLI IN 1915 AND HAVE NO KNOWN GRAVE, AND 456 NEW ZEALAND SOLDIERS WHOSE NAMES ARE NOT RECORDED IN OTHER AREAS OF THE PENINSULA BUT WHO FELL IN THE ANZAC AREA AND HAVE NO KNOWN GRAVES; AND ALSO 960 AUSTRALIANS AND 252 NEW ZEALANDERS WHO, FIGHTING ON GALLIPOLI IN 1915, INCURRED MORTAL WOUNDS OR SICKNESS AND FOUND BURIAL AT SEA.

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.