Name
Jack Hull
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
05/04/1917
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
31556 (poss 31456)
Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)
209th Company.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
NESLE COMMUNAL CEMETERY
C. 39.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin War Memorial,
Holy Saviour Church War Memorial, Radcliffe Rd., Hitchin,
St Mary's Church Roll of Honour, Hitchin
Pre War
He was the second son of John and Clara Hull and his home was at 39, Kings Rd, Hitchin. He resided in Hitchin and enlisted in Hertford. Before joining the army he worked for Messrs P.H. Barker & Son, timber merchants and joiners of Hermitage Road, Hitchin.
He volunteered in August 1913 and was sent to France in August 1914, which would indicate that he had been Regular.
Wartime Service
Initially he was Regimental Number 10330 in the Bedfordshire Regiment and was in the Retreat from Mons and served on the Marne, Ypres and Festubert. Later he was posted to the Royal Irish Fusiliers possibly through having been ill or injured. During this time he was either in the 5th or 6th Battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers which was part of the 31st Brigade of the 10th (Irish) Division. This Division was sent to Gallipoli arriving at Suvla Bay on the 7th August 1915 and was then sent to Salonika, landing there on the 24th October 1915. Whilst at Salonika Jack developed frostbitten feet and was returned to England at Christmas 1915. When he recovered, he was posted as Number 31456 to the 209th Company of the Machine Gun Corps (Infantry) and returned to France in the first half of 1916.
He was seriously wounded in the arm during the Somme battles of July 1916. He returned to France in March 1917 and a newspaper report, which is based on information supplied by a Company officer, states that he died as a result of wounds received on the 3rd April 1917. The Company were about to take new positions when a shell fell close by and a piece of shrapnel severely wounded Jack in his back.
It is almost certain that when he was mortally wounded, he was about forty miles south of Arras, in the southern-most part of the British sector of the Somme where it joined the French Army sector in the vicinity of St. Quentin and Peronne. The British bad advanced from Chaulnes which they had entered on the 19th March 1917 in order to follow up the Germans as they retreated to their prepared positions called the Hindenburg Defence Line. As they retreated, the German Army adopted a ‘scorched earth’ policy and destroyed everything whether or not it bad any military value. By the 2nd April, the British were trying to surround St. Quentin. They were unsuccessful and sustained a substantial number of casualties during the ensuing weeks.
Additional Information
Two other brothers were serving in the forces. He also had a sister.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild