Name
Gordon Gray Hill
30 Aug 1888
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
16/07/1915
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
67
Singapore Volunteer Rifles
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Searched but not found
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
KRANJI WAR CEMETERY
37.F.12
Singapore
Headstone Inscription
I HAVE LOVED THEE WITH AN EVERLASTING LOVE THEREFORE WITH LOVING KINDNESS HAVE I DRAWN THEE JER. XXXI-3 IN MEMORY OF THE DEARLY LOVED ONLY SON OF JAMES & CHRISTINA GRAY HILL OF SHERRARDS, WELWYN, HERTS.
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Welwyn Village memorials, Winchester College War Cloister, St John's College War Memorial, Oxford, Oxford University Roll of Service (1920), Not on the Abergele Memorials
Pre War
Gordon Gray Hill was born in Didsbury, Manchester on 30 August 1888, the only son of James and Christina Gray Hill of Glandwr, Pensarn and later of Sherrards, Welwyn, Herts from 1925. He was baptised at Kensington, Middlesex on 8 August 1889. He had an older sister Rosalind.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at Didsbury Park, Manchester with three servants and his father was listed as an East India Merchant. By 1901 Gordon was a boarder at Ashdown House Preparatory School, Forest Row, East Sussex.
He was educated at Winchester College 1902-1907 and was listed on the 1911 Census as living back with his parents at Glandwr, Pensarn, Abergele, North Wales. His occupation was given as Student and an undergraduate of St John's College, Oxford.
Gordon’s father was a Manchester Cotton Merchant who shipped goods from and between China, Japan and India. After Oxford, Gordon worked in his father’s offices for two years before moving to Singapore as part of the business. He was living and working in Singapore when war broke out.
Wartime Service
On the outbreak of war, Gordon immediately volunteered into the Singapore Rifles. He took part in repressing a mutiny among native troops early in 1915 and was subsequently detailed to perform guard duties at various places round Singapore. While stationed at Labrador, on the western point of the city of Singapore, in early July 1915 he caught a severe chill. An ‘In Memoriam’ carried by The Times on 16 July 1918 stated that he died “very suddenly, from heart failure, following pneumonia contracted while on active service…In life, loving much, he was much beloved, and in death deeply mourned”.
At the time of his death The Times carried a slightly different, cause of death: “in Singapore from acute malarial fever contracted while on active service…only and dearly loved son of Christina and James Gray Hill of Manchester and Glandwr, Abergele’. His grave carries the epitaph, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. In memory of the dearly loved only son of James and Christina Gray Hill of Sherrards, Welwyn, Herts.“
Gordon, died of pneumonia, or possibly malaria, at Whiteaway Laidlands Flats in Singapore, aged 25. He was initially buried at Bididari Christian Cemetery, Singapore, under an earth mound and later reinterred at Kranji War Cemetery, Singapore.
Additional Information
Probate was granted in London on 30 March 1916 to James Gray Hill, merchant, with effects of £7236 13s 9d. His home address was given as Glandwr Abergele, Denbighshire.
N.B. No army records, e.g. Medal Index Cards, Soldiers who Died in the Great War, Register of Soldiers' Effects etc. can be found for Gordon Gray Hill. The Singapore Volunteer Rifles was also known as the Singapore Special Constabulary.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper, Brenda Palmer
Brenda Palmer, abergelepost.com/1915-2015
- Andrew Hesketh, Winchestercollegeatwar.com, www.oxfordhistory.org/war
