Name
Hugh Kidman
1899
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
30/03/1918
30
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Serjeant
285069
Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
MAUBEUGE-CENTRE CEMETERY
A.12
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Baldock memorials, Thame War Memorial (additional names recently added)
Pre War
Hugh was born in 1889 in East Adderbury, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, the son of George and Clara Kidman (nee Newton), and one of four children. He was baptised at the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Adderbury on 8 January 1890.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at a farm in Waterstock, Oxfordshire. Hugh, was attending Lord William's Grammar School in Thame, and on leaving school he worked on the farm with his father. They remained at Waterstock in 1911 and Hugh was described on the census record as the farmer's son, working on the farm.
In 1912 he enlisted in Thame with the Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars (reg. no. 1727), a Yeomanry Cavalry regiment. He was said to be residing in Baldock at the outbreak of war.
His parents later lived at "The Almonds," Clare Rd., Tankerton, Canterbury and The Worlands, Ashwell, Baldock, Herts.
Wartime Service
Being a territorial soldier, he was mobilised at the outbreak of war and served in France from 20 September 1914 with the 1/1st Battalion of the Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars, the first territorial unit to see action in the war. At some point he was promoted to Sergeant.
He was posted as missing on 23 March 1918 during fighting near St Quentin, part of the German spring offensive on the Somme. It was subsequently revealed that he had been wounded and taken to a German hospital where he died of his wounds on 20 March 1918. He is buried in Mauberge-Centre Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £24 and pay owing of £21. No pension appears to have been claimed or paid.
His father obtained probate of his estate on 28 June 1919 in London with effects of £149 10s 3d.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Adrian Pitts, Paul Johnson, thameremembers.org
