PRIVATE 19461 CHARLES HUDSON, 2nd BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT.


PRIVATE 19461 CHARLES HUDSON, 2nd BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT. DIED OF WOUNDS 10th SEPTEMBER 1917 AGED 30


The only son of Jacob and Mary, Charles Hudson, was born in Leeds in 1888. The Hudson family moved to Ilkley in about 1899 when they took up residence at in a terraced house at 22, Middleton Road. Educated at the Catholic School which was then attached to Sacred Heart Church on Stockeld Road, upon the completion of his education he was apprenticed to Mr H S King who was a watch maker with a shop in the Market Place in Otley.


Charles was still living with his parents when in December 1915 he enlisted into the West Riding Regiment at their depot in Halifax. It was not until March the following year that he was called up and after training was posted to the 2nd Battalion in France in July 1916. Within a couple of months Charles was back in England suffering from septic poisoning and sent to a hospital in Birmingham.

On 31st March 1917 Charles returned to France where he was posted to the 20th (Tyneside Scottish) Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers. Strangely, his army record reports that he remained in the West Riding Regiment.

On the 9th September 1917, the 20th Northumberland Fusiliers were in the front line trenches north of St Quentin when they came under sustained German artillery fire. The battalion suffered many casualties including Charles who was badly wounded. Evacuated to the 55th Casualty Clearing Station with serious wounds to his left shoulder and leg the ward matron noted that he barely regained conscientiousness. His condition was hopeless and the Catholic Padre was summoned to administer the last rites and sadly he succumbed to his wounds on the evening of the 10th September.

Today Private Charles Hudson lies in the British Military Cemetery at Tincourt and is remembered with pride on our war memorial in Ilkley.



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