Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookk of war; went to France with the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, of the Expeditionary Force in Aug. 1914; took part in the Battle of Mons, the subsequent retreat, the fighting on the Marne and the Aisne, and the advance into Belgium, and was killed in action at Langemarck, 23 Oct. 1914, on which occasion his platoon lost three-fifths of its strength, but succeeded in holding the position. Buried near Langemarck. He was an excellent all-round sportsman. He was capt. of the cricket and football teams at King's School, Bruton, and of the cricket and hockey teams at the R.A.C., Cirencester, and played cricket and hockey for Somerset, and cricket for the United Kingdom. He _m._ at St. Cuthbert's, Wells, 5 Aug. 1914, Ivy Gwendoline, dau. of the late J. Hussey Cooper, of the Lodge, Wheatley, Oxford; _s.p._ [Illustration: =Harold Edwin Hippisley.=] =HIRST, EDWARD=, Sick Berth Steward, 351015, H.M.S. Cressy; lost in action in the North Sea, 22 Sept. 1914. =HISCOX, THOMAS ANDREW=, Private, No. 1369, 15th Battn. (Civil Service Rifles), The London Regt. (T.F.), eldest _s._ of William Thomas Hiscox, of H.M. Customs and Excise, and 18, Somerville Road, Bishopston, Bristol, by his wife, Jane E., dau. of Andrew Paterson, of Ayr; _b._ Charlestown, co. Cornwall, 4 Feb. 1891; educ. privately at Penzance and at Clark's College, London; was appointed a 2nd Division Clerk in 1911, and when war began was a Clerk in the Treasury, Whitehall; joined the Civil Service Rifles in 1911; volunteered for foreign service; went to France, 17 March, 1915, and was killed in action at Festubert, 27 May following, being shot by a sniper while in an advanced trench; _unm._ =HITCHCOCK, EDWARD WILLIAM=, Stoker, P.O. 308869, H.M.S. Pathfinder; lost when that ship was sunk by a mine, about 20 miles off the East Coast, 5 Sept. 1914. =HITCHEN, ARTHUR BENJAMIN=, Rifleman, No. 2804, 1/7th Battn. (Leeds Rifles), West Yorkshire Regt. (T.F.), _s._ of John William Hitchen, of 35, Meanwood Street, Leeds, by his wife, Charlotte Adelaide, dau. of Charles Smith Butcher, of Leeds; _b._ Leeds, 18 Dec. 1896; educ. St. Peter's Square Board School there; joined the Leeds Rifles, 19 Sept. 1914; went to the Front, 15 April, 1915, and was killed in action at Laventie, 7 May, 1915; _unm._ [Illustration: =Arthur Benjamin Hitchen.=] =HITCHINS, HENRY WILLIAM ERNEST=, Lieut.-Col., Commanding 1st Battn. The Manchester Regt., only _s._ of the late Major-Gen. Henry White Hitchins, R.E., and grandson of the late Lieut.-Gen. Benjamin Hitchins; _b._ London, 31 May, 1865; educ. privately and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst; gazetted 2nd Lieut. to the 1st Battn. The Manchester Regt. (the Old 63rd), 25 Aug. 1886. He was promoted Capt. 11 May, 1895, and in Nov. 1897, was appointed Adjutant of the 3rd Volunteer (now the 9th Territorial Battn.) of his regt. In addition to his work us Volunteer Adjutant, he voluntarily performed the duties of Adjutant of the Depôt, and made great efforts throughout the district in recruiting. His organising powers were much appreciated by Col. Gunter, Commanding 63rd Regimental District, to whom he generally acted as staff officer. The number of volunteers increased from 600 to over 1,000, which fact proves his zeal and popularity. Later he commanded the Regimental Depot. To quote the local press: "As a Regimental Officer he enlisted the affection and respect of all with whom he had been associated. Officers and privates appreciated his high sense of duty, and loved him for his kindness of disposition and his chivalrous unselfish nature." On 1 July, 1901, he obtained his Majority, and from 1 June, 1906, was second in command. He was thus 13 years and 9 months a Major, 8 years and 10 months of which as "appointed second in command;" his double period in that appointment being due to the absorbing of the senior second in command of the two battns., which were disbanded in 1906. During his 28 years of close association with the Regt., especially during his long period as Major and second in command, his zeal, good work and influence must have greatly helped to form the character and efficiency of the battn., qualities which were to be so splendidly demonstrated in France and Flanders. In 1906 Major Hitchins proceeded to India, serving with his old battn. the 1st Manchesters; was at Delhi for the Coronation Durbar; and for a time Commandant of the Pachmarhi Depot. On the outbreak of war in 1914, Major Hitchins was temporarily in Command of the 1st Battn., in the absence of the then Lieut.-Col. He was responsible for the mobilising of the battn. which left India with the Lahore Division at the end of August, and was first in action at Picantin on 23 Oct. 1914. In Nov. he was again in temporary command. The battn. had its full share of long and laborious work in the trenches, and on 20 Dec., at the critical fight for Givenchy, it was in action for 30 successive hours, and earned from the Gen. commanding the Lahore Division the name of "The Gallant Manchesters." In his thanks to them and the 4th Suffolks, the Gen. paid a tribute to their "splendid work and gallant conduct first in recapturing some of the lost trenches at Givenchy on 20 Dec., then in holding those trenches on 21 Dec. against overwhelming attacks of the enemy." He said: Givenchy was the most important point in the whole of the line held by the Lahore Division, and that its retention in our hands was due to the courage and steadfastness of the officers and men of those two brave battns. The General commanding the Indian Army Corps, addressing the 1st Manchesters, thanked them for "their very fine bit of work in the fight." He described them as "a very gallant battn. holding the most important point on the right of the British line, and by their gallant conduct in holding on to it, rendering greater service than they probably realised." Field-Marshal Earl Kitchener, in the House of Lords in Jan. 1915, in his survey of the then recent fighting, mentioned the engagement at Givenchy as the only important event of that period in which the British and German forces were concerned. At the taking of Givenchy, for which the battn. earned this praise, Lieut.-Col. (then Major) Hitchins was in actual command of three and a half out of four double companies of the Regt. During this action he was shot through the thigh. Arriving in England on Christmas Eve he was sent to hospital, where he received his Colonel's thanks for his good work, and the valuable and very loyal assistance he had given him all along, and he expressed the hope that such "splendid services" would receive reward. On 1 April, 1915, he embarked again for the Front, and on the 19th the Commander-in-Chief inspected the 1st Manchesters, and spoke in the highest terms of their gallant behaviour, and congratulated Major Hitchins on being at the head of such "a splendid Battn." Subsequently he was appointed to the Lieut.-Colonelcy of his own battn. (being gazetted two days before his death, to |