My great grandmother was born Susan Caroline Hill in London in 1875. Two of her brothers, William and John, were wounded in action in WW1. One of her Stocking brothers-in-law was killed, and two were awarded the Military Medal. How did the conflict impact on their lives? She married in 1900, and while her husband James Aaron Stocking did not serve as far as I can tell, the couple would have been worried at the events unfolding overseas, both for their own families and those of their neighbours. These are the stories of the Hills who went to War.

William Hill: Steady the Buffs

Susan’s brother William Hill was born on 16 May 1886 in Bermondsey, South London, when she was ten years old. Their parents had two other children at home; their first two children had died in infancy some years earlier. By the time of the 1901 census, William is enumerated with his mother and step-father (Thomas George Evans) at 25 Herman Road, Camberwell. Aged 15, he was working as a General Labourer. By the time he married Emily Harrington Groves in Lambeth on 29 September 1907, aged 21, he was working as a Printer, an occupation he would follow for the rest of his life. Emily was six months pregnant, and their son William George Frederick Hill, was born on 14 December 1907.

At the time of the 1911 census, William, Emily and three-year old William junior occupy three rooms at 168 Rolls Road, Bermondsey. William senior is still working as a printer, although he doesn’t give the name of his employers on the census form. By the time he signed up to join the Army on 29 November 1915, the First World War had been raging for 14 months. Lord Kitchener’s Campaign ‘Your Country Needs You’ had encouraged over a million volunteers to sign up by the beginning of 1915, but more men were needed. William joined up before conscription was introduced by Act of Parliament in January 1916 (UK Parliament).

His short service attestation record and accompanying documents are available at Ancestry.co.uk. They show that he was 5ft 4 1/2″ tall, and record the dates of his marriage and the birth of his son. His civilian occupation is Printer, and his home address is 44 Marlborough Road, Camberwell. He joined the 1st Battalion East Kent Regiment (‘The Buffs’), with regimental number 13371. Initially he served ‘at home’, at Barracks in Canterbury, presumably undergoing training, but was posted to the British Expeditionary Force in France at the beginning of December 1916. He appears to have needed hospital treatment at the end of January 1917, transferring from a field hospital to a General Hospital at Etaples by the beginning of March 1917. No details are given of his condition on this occasion. By 26 April that year, he had rejoined his company in the field, and was promoted to Lance Corporal in November.

A few days later, on 20 November 1917, he received a gun shot wound to his right arm; this was the first day of the Battle of Cambrai which saw over 125,000 casualties.

He was admitted to hospital in Etaples the following day. Two months earlier, this French coastal town and major British Army base had seen a number of soldiers engage in mutiny, which wasn’t suppressed until the end of October (Wikipedia).

Would he have been able to get word back to his family about his condition? Back home, they would have read daily reports of the progress of the War, and local papers like the Brockley, New Cross and Hatcham Review carried regular lists of those killed in action, of wounds or as prisoners. The paper of 21 September 1917 included the names of many men from the East Kent Regiment. William’s family and friends would have been relieved not to see his name listed, but may have known some of his fellow soldiers.

At the end of November 1917, Private William Hill was repatriated to England on board the Stad Antwerpen, a hospital and troop ship and excluded from medical re-examination for a return to the field. He was finally discharged as unfit for service in May 1918. He was 32 years old.

The gun shot wound does not seem to have rendered him incapable of work; by the time of the 1921 census, living at 44 Marlborough Road, Camberwell, with wife Emily, son William and his widowed stepfather Thomas George Evans, he is still working as a Printer. On this census he gives the name and address of his employer: Vail & Co, Great Portland Street, London. Barely a month after the census was taken, the couple had a second son, Frederick Joseph T Hill, on 1 July 1921.

When World War II broke out in September 1939, he and Emily had moved out of South London to Bexley in Kent. They are living at Selsea Crescent, and he is now described as a Printer, Platen Machine Minder. Their eldest son William (now a Senior Clerk for a Scrap Iron Dealer) and his wife Lilian are living next door; their youngest son Frederick is also a Clerk, and is living with his parents.

I do not know when William Hill died. Ancestry.co.uk has a US Social Security Record for a William Hill, born 16 May 1886 (the correct birth date) dying in Washington State in 1963, but I have no other evidence that he or other family members emigrated.

John Charles Hill: A regular soldier

Susan’s youngest brother John Charles Hill had already joined the army reserve some years before the outbreak of War. There was a large age gap between him and Susan: she was 15 when he was born. He makes his first appearance in census records in 1891, aged six weeks, having been born on 17 February that year.

His attestation papers at Ancestry show that he first joined the Royal West Kent Special Reserve, and then joined the regular Army, in the First Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment, on 21 September 1908, with regimental number 9055. He gave his age as 18 years, and in civilian life was a Harness Maker (he gained a saddlers certificate while serving, in 1910).

The description shows that he had a scar on his left hand and a birthmark on his side and had a ‘sallow’ complexion. His ‘home’ service with the West Kent Regiment before the War took him to Dublin and Aldershot between 1908 and 1914, during which time his service record shows he was late returning from leave, and found drunk, on several occasions. In March 1911, home on leave from the army, he registered his mother’s death, giving his occupation as ‘R.W.K Regiment’ stationed in Hampshire. When enumerated with his widowed step-father in the 1911 census just after her death, he is simply described as a soldier.

He was posted to France to fight with the West Kents in August 1914. landing at Le Havre. The Division was sent to Italy at the end of 1917, before returning to France in April 1918. By then his brother William had been sent back to England on a hospital ship. I wonder how much John would have known of his brother’s injuries?

Two months before joining the British Expeditionary Force in France, he married an Irish woman, Florence Emily Williams, in Dublin in June 1914. A month after being posted to France, he was wounded in the right knee (13 September 1914), but his service records do not show any other information about his wound, or treatment. He continued to serve with the Royal West Kent Regiment, being demobilised in February 1919.

Among its first major engagements were the Battle of Mons on 23 August and the Battle of Le Cateau three days later. In October, the battalion made a heroic stand at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle; being the only unit not to fall back. Out of 750 men, only 300 commanded by a lieutenant and a second lieutenant survived. Apart from a brief period from December 1917 to April 1918, when it was moved with the 5th Division to the Italian Front, the 1st Battalion was stationed on the Western Front for the duration of the war, .

Queen’s Own Royal West Kent First Battalion: Wikipedia

John and Florence Hill had two children, both born in Dublin: Charlotte Frances Annie Hill, born 5 April 1915, and John Charles Hill, 18 September 1917. I have not found any of the family in the England 1921 census, nor in the 1939 Register, so it is possible that on demobilisation he returned to Florence and the children in Dublin. Their children, at least, did move to England later; their daugher Charlotte married Benjamin Herbert in London in 1942, and died there in 2001. Their son John died in Manchester in 1977.