Name: |
Eric
Ernest Hughes |
Birth Place: |
New Wandsworth, Surrey |
Residence: |
Palmer's Green, Middx. |
Death Date: |
28 Jun 1916 |
Death Location: |
France & Flanders |
Enlistment Location: |
Camden Town, Middx. |
Rank: |
Private |
Regiment: |
Army Cyclist Corps |
Battalion: |
47th London Divisional Cyclist Company |
Number: |
386 |
Type of Casualty: |
Killed in action |
Theatre of War: |
Western European Theatre |
Comments: |
Formerly 2353, London Regt. |
[Source - Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-19]
In Memory of
Private ERIC ERNEST HUGHES
386, 25th Bn., London Regiment (Cyclists)
who died age 22 on 28 June 1916
Only son of Charles Ernest and Anne Margaret Hughes, of 34, Caversham Avenue, Palmer's Green, London.
Enlisted Sept., 1914. Previously wounded May,1915.
Remembered with honour Arras
Memorial, Bay 10.
Commemorated in perpetuity by
the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Arras Memorial,, Pas de Calais, France
The French handed over
Arras
to Commonwealth forces in the spring of 1916 and the system of tunnels
upon which the town is built were used and developed in preparation for
the major offensive planned for April 1917. The Commonwealth section of
the FAUBOURG D'AMIENS CEMETERY was begun in March 1916, behind the French
military cemetery established earlier. It continued to be used by field
ambulances and fighting units until November 1918. The cemetery was
enlarged after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the
battlefields and from two smaller cemeteries in the vicinity. The cemetery
contains 2,651 Commonwealth burials of the First World War. In addition,
there are 30 war graves of other nationalities, most of them German.
During the Second World War,
Arras
was occupied by
United Kingdom
forces headquarters until the town was evacuated on 23 May 1940.
Arras
then remained in German hands until retaken by Commonwealth and Free
French forces on 1 September 1944. The cemetery contains seven
Commonwealth burials of the Second World War. The graves in the French
military cemetery were removed after the First World War to other burial
grounds and the land they had occupied was used for the construction of
the Arras Memorial and Arras Flying Services Memorial. The ARRAS MEMORIAL
commemorates almost 35,000 servicemen from the
United Kingdom
,
South Africa
and
New Zealand
who died in the
Arras
sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918, the eve of the
Advance to Victory, and have no known grave. The most conspicuous events
of this period were the
Arras
offensive of April-May 1917, and the German attack in the spring of 1918.
Canadian and Australian servicemen killed in these operations are
commemorated by memorials at Vimy and Villers-Bretonneux. A separate
memorial remembers those killed in the Battle of Cambrai in 1917. The
ARRAS FLYING SERVICES MEMORIAL commemorates nearly 1,000 airmen of the
Royal Naval Air Service, the Royal Flying Corps, and the Royal Air Force,
either by attachment from other arms of the forces of the Commonwealth or
by original enlistment, who were killed on the whole Western Front and who
have no known grave. Both cemetery and memorial were designed by Sir Edwin
Lutyens, with sculpture by Sir William Reid Dick. The memorial was
unveiled by Lord Trenchard, Marshal of the Royal Air Force on the 31 July
1932 (originally it had been scheduled for 15 May, but due to the sudden
death of French President Doumer, as a mark of respect, the ceremony was
postponed until July).
The Arras Memorial is in the Faubourg-d'Amiens
Cemetery, which is in the Boulevard du General de Gaulle in the western
part of the town of
Arras
. The cemetery is near the Citadel, approximately 2 kms due west of the
railway station.
[Courtesy of
Commonwealth War Graves Commission]
|