Pte 52072 John Henry Hudson

• Age: 27
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• K.I.A Tuesday 31st July 1917
• Commemorated at: Menin Gate Memorial
  Panel Ref: Panel 4 & 6

John Henry Hudson was born in 1890 in Liverpool and he was the son of Thomas Vernon Hudson and his wife Catherine (nee Gould) who married in St Michaels in the Hamlet in 1868. John was baptised in in St James' Church in Toxteth on 27th August 1890 where the records show that his father is a boilermaker and iron ship builder, and that the family lived at 7, Steble Street.

The 1891 census records that Thomas is 42 and had been born in Belfast, Catherine is 39 and had been born in Liverpool. Most of their six children had been born in Liverpool too, as well as baby John Henry who was 10 months old there was Thomas who was 19 and William who was 14 were both working as pawnbrokers assistants, Elizabeth 16 and a dressmaker, Robert 11 who is at school (he had been born in Ireland) and Arthur aged 4. The family lived at 108 Northumberland Street.

John’s sister Elizabeth married in 1897, as did his brother Thomas, and his brother William married in August 1899

By 1901 the family had moved to 45 Peel Street, Toxteth where Thomas is still a boilermaker, and only Robert, Arthur and John are left living with their parents. Robert is a jobber and jeweller in gold (jewellery for wholesale), Arthur is a pawnbrokers apprentice and John is still at school. From this address Catherine is working as a matron and has a eleven orphans, boys and girls, living in the house between the ages of 4 and 13. The house is next door but one establishment called The Girls Preventative Home which has 38 girl inmates between 10 and 15 years of age. It’s not known whether there was a connection between the two homes. There was also a domestic servant 21 year old Mary Mcneny who would go on to marry John’s brother Robert in 1907.

John’s father died aged 56 in 1905 and is buried at Toxteth Cemetery.

At the time of the 1911 census John and his mother are living in the household of his brother William who is married to Mary and has four children. Their address is 54 Cleopas Street, Toxteth. William is a boilermaker and John is working as a fruit broker's apprentice.

John enlisted in Liverpool and was serving in the 19th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 52072 when he was killed in action on the 31st July 1917 during the Third Battle of Ypres.

19th Battalion

The 19th Battalion started the day in Divisional Reserve but were called forward in the early morning of 31st July and reached Maple Copse in late afternoon. It was originally detailed to continue with the morning’s attack but this was cancelled and they eventually relieved a Battalion of the 53rd Brigade in the newly captured line, sustaining casualties from shell fire.

The Battalion was relieved on the night of 03rd/4th August.

Although not actively engaged in the assault the Battalion lost 26 men killed or died of wounds with four officers and 101 men wounded.

His name appeared in a list of wounded in the local press on 10th September 1917, His status was eventually changed to killed in action. 

John has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial at Ypres in Belgium.

The site of the Menin Gate was chosen because of the hundreds of thousands of men who passed through it on their way to the battlefields. It commemorates casualties from the forces of Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and United Kingdom who died in the Salient. In the case of United Kingdom casualties, only those prior 16 August 1917 (with some exceptions). United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after that date are named on the memorial at Tyne Cot, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war. New Zealand casualties that died prior to 16 August 1917 are commemorated on memorials at Buttes New British Cemetery and Messines Ridge British Cemetery.

The YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL now bears the names of more than 54,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield with sculpture by Sir William Reid-Dick, was unveiled by Lord Plumer on 24 July 1927.

Soldiers Effects to brothers Thomas, William, Arthur and Robert, sister Elizabeth Clarke, niece Rebecca Appleton, Pension to Elizabeth Clarke, , 41 Enid Street.

The mother Catherine died aged 67 in 1918.

We currently have no further information on John Henry Hudson, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.