Name
Hubert Wallace Thelwall
3 September 1875
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
23/04/1916
40
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Major
Major
West India Regiment
1st Bn., attached 15th Bn. Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment)
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LE TOURET MILITARY CEMETERY, RICHEBOURG-L'AVOUE
III. E. 27.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Individual plaque, St Mary’s Church, Northchurch, Northchurch Village Memorial, Berkhamsted Town Memorial
Pre War
Hubert Wallace was born in Portsea Hants on 3 September 1875 to Colonel (Royal Marines Artillery) Eubele Daysh Thelwall and Mary Elizabeth (nee Williams).
On the 1881 Census the family were listed as living at Ballasalla House, Isle of Man, where they employed three servants. They had moved to Northchurch, Berkhamsted by 1891 and were living at Charles Street.
Hubert enlisted into the Sherwood Foresters as Private 4321 on 3 October 1893 aged 18 years. He remained in service, progressing to Sergeant on 9 March 1898 but bought himself out on 21 March 1898.
He moved to India as a Tea Planter and enlisted as a Trooper, together with his Brother Ernest Adair Thelwall (both B Company No1 Section) to serve in the Boer War with Lumsden’s Horse, a Mounted Infantry Unit, gaining 3 Clasps to the Queens South Africa Medal (Johannesburg, Cape Colony and Orange Free State).
He returned to the UK in 1900 and on 6 October 1900 he was gazetted as Second Lieutenant in 1st Battalion West Indies Regiment. In 1901 he served in both Jamaica and at times in West Africa (Sierra Leone). He was married in Jamaica in 1910 to Angel May Holland Hastings and on the 1911 Census Hubert was recorded as a Lieutenant living at the officers quarters in Jamaica. He and his wife later lived at 26 The Park, Mitcham, Surrey.
Their son Gerald was baptised on 4 January 1915 at St Barnabas Church, Kensington and they were said to be living at 22 Edith Villas, West Kensington at that time.
Wartime Service
He went to France on 29 January 1916 with 15 (Service) Battalion Sherwood Foresters, as he held a Temporary Rank of Lieutenant- Colonel, assumed to be commanding.
He was killed by a sniper on 23 April, 1916 on the ‘Lorgies/Festubert’ road where it crosses the ‘La Bassee/Neuve Chapelle’ road. He is buried in Le Touret Military Cemetery, Richebourge-L'Avoue, France.
Additional Information
A war gratuity of £69 and pay arrears of £24 15s 6d were paid to his widow. She obtained probate of his estate in London on 6 June 1916 with effects of £270 7s 10d.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper, Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild,
