PRIVATE 12873 FRED HUDSON, 9th BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT (ILKLEY PALS COMPANY). DIED OF WOUNDS 28th AUGUST 1918 AGED 26 YEARS.


PRIVATE 12873 FRED HUDSON, 9th BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT (ILKLEY PALS COMPANY). DIED OF WOUNDS 28th AUGUST 1918 AGED 26 YEARS.




Fred Hudson was wounded in the same attack as Bernard Robinson when the 9th West Ridings had attacked the village of Martinpuich in the Somme area on the 26th August 1918. Like his comrade, Fred was evacuated to a Casualty Clearing Station but died just two days after the battle.

Fred was the youngest of 9 children born to stone mason Aquila Hudson and his wife Sarah who lived on Ashlands Terrace and after completing his education worked as an engine cleaner for the Midland Railway in Ilkley. In late August 1914 Fred enlisted into the Ilkley Pals Company of the 9th West Riding Regiment and along with 125 other men from the town was immediately sent to Dorset to begin his training. Arriving in France on the 15th July 1915 he spent the next three years with the battalion as fought in almost all the major battles of the war.

Today Private Fred Hudson lies in the British Military Cemetery at Fienvillers, near to his comrade Bernard Robinson and is remembered with pride on our war memorial in Ilkley 

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