Name
Johnson Hugh Linsell
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
25/09/1915
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment)
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LOOS MEMORIAL
Panel 99 to 101.
France
Headstone Inscription
No Report
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Harpenden memorials, Luton War Memorial, Luton, Beds
Pre War
Johnson Hugh was born in 1895 in Luton to Joseph John Linsell, a straw plait merchant, and Gertude (nee Barker).
On the 1891 Census the family were living at ‘Hillside’, Milton Road, Harpenden. On the 1901 Census the family had moved to Chapel Street, Luton. Hugh was educated at St Gregory’s School, Luton, Bedford Grammar School, and the Ecole de Commerce, Neuchatel, Switzerland subsequently going to Krefeld, Germany. By the 1911 Census the family had moved to Bromham Road, Bedford. Hugh had an elder brother, Alfred Aubyn, younger brother Ralph Unwin and a sister Iris Gertrude. The family later lived at High Bank, Milton Road, Harpenden.
Wartime Service
Hugh Linsell joined the 9th Battalion (Queen Victoria Rifles) County of London Regiment as Private 2473 on Aug. 31st, 1914, and following training left England with a draft at the end of January 1915.Later he became one of the ' runners ' of his battalion, and was recommended for a commission by his CO. He was commissioned on 29 August 1915 in 1st Battalion Middlesex Regiment and joined them at Loos where he was killed. His remains were not recovered and he is remembered on the Loos Memorial.
Colonel F . Rowley wrote that he was killed on the 25th inst, "while gallantly leading his platoon against the German trenches." The telegram ex- pressing Lord Kitchener's sympathy arrived on the 29th inst.
Additional Information
War Gratuity and Arrears of £56 17s 7d paid to his father. Elder Brother Alfred Aubyn served as Lieutenant RNVR and survived.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Jonty Wild
