Category Archives: Western Front

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 At that point the 19th Division was withdrawn and not involved in any furthr fighting until the following spring.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.

William Thomas Herbert

Army, Commemorated name/s, Passchendaele, Royal Berkshire Regiment

William Thomas Herbert
Private 22047
2nd Royal Berkshire Regiment

 Division 7

Herbert WTphoto

William Thomas Herbert is remembered on the family grave. The Berkshire Family History Society classification number is 7110.  He was the son of William and Jane Maria Herbert.  The 1911 census indicates that he was a labourer in the brewery. His mother had been a widow for more than ten years, her occupation is given as charwoman at the brewery. At the time the family comprised William’s older sister and two cousins. The family lived at 8 Orchard Street.

William Thomas Herbert is buried at Brandhoek New Military Cemetery, Vlaanderen, Belgium. Grave location IV.B.14. He died on the 4th August 1917 and was aged 30.  The 3rd Battle of Ypres began on the 31st July 1917, William Herbert was  wounded during that battle.  Brandhoek was comparatively safe from shell fire during the war.  Field ambulances were posted there and during 3rd Ypres it was the site of various Clearing Stations.  The New Military Cemetery was opened to cope with the large number of casualties from that battle.  Also buried in the cemetery is Captain Noel Chavasse, VC and Bar, MC, one of only three men who won the Victoria Cross twice.