BORN – Oswestry
HOMEFRONT – Place / Occupation / WarMem – Trefonen, MidBank / Oswestry School, / St Oswald’s Church
EDUCATION – Oswestry School
JOB – Clerk
UNIT – 7 Bn King’s Shropshire Light Infantry.
RANK – Second Lieutenant
THEATRE – Somme / Cambrai / 7 Bn King’s Shropshire Light Infantry Baupame-Cambrai Road. 12 August 1917
DIED – KIA 12 August 1917. Aged 23.
BURIED – Anneux British Cemetery. (CWGC)
BROTHER to Second Lieutenant Charles Henry Hughes
George Hughes was born in 1894 at Coed y Go, Oswestry. His father was John, a farmer and animal dealer. His mother was Mary, who died circa 1899/1900. George had 6 siblings; Alfred, Frank, Bertha, Nellie, Herbert, and youngest Charles (Second Lieutenant Charles H Hughes). The family lived at Llwyn y Mapsis farm near Morda – their father’s cousin, Mary Judson, lived with them as housekeeper. George went to Oswestry School. In April 1911 he started as a clerk for London City and Midland Bank and moved to Liverpool to work in the Castle Street branch. He is recorded as enlisting in 6 Bn King’s Liverpool Regiment on 6 August 1914 – this was a pre-war Territorial unit and it is possible that George had previously served in the KLRs and waived the exclusion for Territorials to serve overseas.
George went over to France in February 1915 with 6 Bn KLR. During his service with the KLR he was wounded twice – in March 1915, and again in May when he was wounded in the thigh and admitted to Gower Street Hospital, London. He returned to duty in July, being posted to KLR Reserve battalion at Blackpool and then went on to officer training. He was commissioned to 9 Bn KSLI in November 1915 and spent over a year posted at home before returning to France in September 1916 posted to 7 Bn KSLI. He was wounded for the third time in March 1917 and spent time in hospital at Manchester, before returning again to the front in June.
George was KIA over the night of 11 August. Lieutenant Hughes was leading a covering party during a relief when they encountered an enemy patrol. A fire fight ensued during which he was killed – as were 1 other rank as well as 4 wounded and 1 missing. The other fatality was Private 26391 G King buried next to Lieutenant Hughes in Anneux British Cemetery; both were re-interments after the war. The missing man was Private 23548 William Henry Poynton of Weston Rhyn and commemorated on the village war memorial and on the Arras Memorial.
George is also commemorated at St Oswald’s Church, on Trefonen and Oswestry School war memorials and the Midland Bank War Memorial.
His elder brother, Frank, served in the Canadian Forces; he was wounded in September 1916 but survived the war. He had emigrated to Canada in April 1903.
Acknowledgements.
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