No.17240, Private, Charles HUBBARD
Aged 32
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Charles HUBBARD was born in Saxon Street in 1884 (Newmarket Q1-1885 3B:567) son of James and Mary Ann HUBBARD (née SALE).
1891 census...Aged 6, he was in Saxon Street with his father James HUBBARD[43] a shepherd born in Woodditton; his mother Mary A [36] born in Barrow; sisters Amelia [11] and Sarah [10]; brother William [8] and sisters Alice [4], Harriet [2] and Anne [6 months] all born in Woodditton (Saxon Street ?). 1901 census...Aged 16, a shepherd, he was in Saxon Street with his parents; brother William ( basket maker),and sister Alice and brothers John [8] and Alfred [3] both born in Woodditton. 1911 census... Aged 26, a carter, he was in Saxon Street with his parents; brothers William (now a boot repairer), John ( a farm labourer) Alfred (school) and sister Doris [7]. Now all the family except his mother are recorded as born in Saxon Street. Of ten children 2 have died, presumably Harriet and Anne. He married Hilda May CHAPMAN (b.16-12-1890) in 1915 Q2, in Chesterton, Cambridge, her address after his death being Laburnum Terrace, Grantchester, Cambridge, where he is also commemorated on the war memorial.
Photo courtsey of Nicholas Hatton |
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He enlisted in Newmarket. Charles died on the 1st day of the Somme, one of nearly 20,000 British soldiers to die in that one terrible day, the worst in British military history. The 11th Suffolks (sometime referred to as the Cambridgeshires) were formed when the numbers of volunteers for the Suffolks overcame the facilities at Bury St Edmunds. A camp was set up in Cambridge to accept attest and accept into the Suffolk Regiment the many men from the edge of the Fens. After a brief time with no official title, they became the 11th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment. From Lt Col Murphy's "History of the Suffolk Regiment" and Ray Westlake's "Tracing British battalions on the Somme", we learn that :- The 11th Suffolks were part of the 101st Brigade, 34th Division which were part of a terrible casualty list. They were mostly very inexperienced troops. Moving up from Becourt Wood early in the morning, they positioned themselves just behind the 10th Lincolnshires. Just in front of them the enormous Lochnagar mine was blown at La Boiselle at 7.28. The Germans, pre warned by the British artillery barrage had simply gone deep into their bunkers, and apart from those actually caught by the mine , were ready and waiting the moment the barrage stopped. The advancing British were cut to pieces by machine fire, it was virtually over for them within half an hour. On that one day the 11th Suffolks suffered 187 killed, of which no less than 146 have no known grave. At the end of July 4th the battalion (around 1,000 men ) had suffered 691 of all ranks either killed or wounded, the highest of any battalion in the 34th Division. |
photo Commonwealth War Graves Commission
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