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Hugh Richard Hyndman-Jones

Key Information

Name:Hugh Richard Hyndman -Jones
DoB: December  3 1890
Regt: 22nd Australian Imperial Forces
DoD:  October 4 1917
Academic Career: CGS 1901-3

Biographical Information:

  • Family Background:

    Hugh’s father is recorded on the 1891 Census as having been born in Georgetown, British Guiana and his mother in New South Wales, so it is perhaps unsurprising that the family should emigrate to Australia in 1903. Hugh was born in St Pancras, London, and by 1901 was at Kendal and then  Carlisle Grammar School – perhaps what is surprising is that he should be in Carlisle at all!

  • Academic Record:

    CGS 1901-3 

  • War Service:

    The National Archives of Australia (NAA) provide a detailed account of Hugh’s war service. He joined up in March 1915 in Melbourne aged 24. He was 5’7’’ with blue eyes and dark brown hair and was a motor mechanic. He was sent to join MEF (?) at Gallipoli in August 1915 and disembarked at Alexandria in January 1916. From there (Gallipoli having been evacuated in the December) he transferred to join the BEF in France. During that year Hugh was promoted to Corporal, then Sergeant. By October he had several problems with myositis (muscle inflammation), and in 1917 suffered from scabies and dermatitis, and several admissions to hospital were recorded. Given the conditions in the trenches this is perhaps hardly unusual. In December 1916 while at Wareham in England (following a hospital admission) Hugh went AWOL for 24 hours and was “Admonished” and had to forfeit two days (pay? leave?). He was killed near Ypres during the Battle of Passchendaele and is remembered on the Menin Gate as HR Jones. A labelled cross was found at Ziblebeke 50, but when it was excavated no remains were found. However the NAA refer to a memorial at Perth China Wall Cemetery near Ypres.

  • Battalion:

    Australian Imperial Forces

  • Other:

    Hugh was married to Dorothy and they had an infant son Hugh William living in Abbotsford Victoria. By his will he left her two sets of draughtsman’s Instruments, two books, curios, three pipes, cards and studs. One of the last documents in the NAA is the pension granted to his wife (Wanda Dorothy Creswick Hyndman-Jones) and son in January 1918.

  • Sources:

    a)      Carlisle School Memorial Register 1264-1924

    b)      Census:  1891 RG 12/4332

    1901 RG13 4913 151 26)

    1911

    c) National Archives of Australia