Name
Hugh Petley
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
16/09/1916
28
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Captain
London Regiment *1
1st (City of London) Bn., attached 7th (City of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 9D and 16B.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Watford Borough Roll of Honour, Holy Trinity Church Memorial, Sydenham, London
Pre War
Son of the late Edmund and Louisa Hine/Hyne (nee HENDERSON) PETLEY.
His parents married 5 September 1883 at St Andrew’s, Peckham, London. Louisa died 1888 in the Greenwich, London, district aged 33, and was buried 5 May in Camberwell Old Cemetery, London. Edmund remarried 20 February 1893 at St Mark’s, Peckham, to Emma HAYNES, and died 28 October 1913 in Watford aged 55; Emma died 10 September 1936 in Brighton, Sussex, aged 82.
Hugh was born 26 February 1888 in Brockley, London, and baptised 1 July 1888 at St Andrew’s, Peckham. He attended the Abbey School, Beckenham, Kent, and the King’s School, Canterbury, Kent.
He has an entry in the National Probate Calendar.
On the 1891 Census, aged 3 he lived in Peckham, with his widowed father and no siblings. On the 1901 Census, aged 13 he lived in Beckenham, with his father, step-mother and no siblings. On the 1911 Census, a farm pupil aged 23, he was a boarder in Swindon, Wilts.
Wartime Service
He was formerly Sergeant 1334 28th London Regiment (Artists’ Rifles), and rejoined them in June 1914. He was Gazetted to the 2nd/1st Battalion, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) as Second Lieutenant 24 April 1915.
He served in the Gallipoli Campaign at Suvla Bay and Hellas, and then in Egypt. He was promoted to Temporary Captain 8 September 1915, attached to the 7th Battalion, London Regiment, and sent to France. He took part in the Battle of the Somme, and was killed by a shell whilst returning to Battalion Headquarters.
He was entitled to the Victory and British War medals, which were claimed by his step-mother of Southampton.
Additional Information
*1 London Regiment (Royal
Fusiliers).
There is an article about Hugh in the West Herts and Watford Observer dated 7 October 1916.
Acknowledgments
Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
