In 1901 his father is again away at sea, and his mother, 47, with five children, is at 96 Parkhill Road, Toxteth Park. Hugh is 14, a grocer’s messenger.

 

Unfortunately Hugh has not been found on the 1911 census, or on crew lists.  His mother, 57, is head of household at 8 Springbourne Road, Toxteth Park, with his younger brothers John Clive, 19, a house joiner, and William, 17, a printer’s clerk.  His father, 56, is listed as shipping engineer, on a steamer, the Elder and Dempster screw steamer Karina  docked in the Mersey at Birkenhead. It is highly likely that Hugh was at sea, as there is a 1913 record of him being a cook aboard the Liverpool registered trawler "Gallinule".

The Elder Dempster Screw Steamer Karina, referred to in the 1911 Census was torpedoed off Waterford on 01st August 1917.

 

His father died in February 1914 aged 59, living at 8 Springbourne Road, Toxteth Park (the address of married daughter Marion Donaldson).  His mother Isabella died a few months later, in early September 1914, aged 61.

 

Hugh enlisted soon after war was declared in August 1914, as Private 13453, joining the 14th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment.  After training in Eastbourne and Seaford, Hugh disembarked in France on 25th September 1915.  They entrained for Marseilles and from there embarked in October for Salonika.  The battalion saw action at the Battles of Horseshoe Hill in August 1916 and Machukovo in September.  In 1917 they were in action during the Battles of Doiran (April-May 1917). The 14th Bn left the Balkans in June 1918 via Itea in Greece and Taranto in Italy, for the Western Front.  On 13th August they were amalgamated with the 18th K.L.R., becoming the 18th (Lancashire Hussars Yeomanry), the King’s (Liverpool Regiment).  

Hugh was killed in action on the 08th November 1918 aged 30 during the hundred days offensive which ended the First World War (8^th August-11^th November 1918).

At the time of his death on 8th November 1918, warfare had become mobile, with the British Army harrying the Germans, who would retreat to a position, fight, then retreat once more.The day before he was killed the Battalion had just marched from Mariollers to Marbaix in France, when it was ordered to take a position in the line near Marbaix, from the 1/5th Gloucestershire Regiment. On the following day, 08th November an attack was commenced at 07.30am supported by the 100th Battalion Machine Gun Corps and artillery fire. Despite their support, the advancing troops encountered fierce rifle and machine gun fire from the German position’s. Although the attack was eventually successful, two more officers and thirty six other ranks were to be wounded, and fourteen other ranks Killed, only three days before the Armistice.

Hugh was one of those 14 other ranks referred to. 

He was buried close to where he fell and after the war, when graves were concentrated, Hugh’s body, together with his Pals, was removed and reinterred in Dourlers Communal Cemetery Extension where he now rests. The inscription on his headstone reads:

“HE LOVED US”

Dourlers village was in German hands during almost the whole of the First World War. It was taken on 07th November 1918, after heavy fighting, by the 6th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and the 1st K.O.Y.L.I. The communal cemetery was used by the Germans during the war, but in November 1918, a small extension was made by Commonwealth troops at the west end. After the Armistice, the German graves from the communal cemetery and others from the battlefields, together with Commonwealth graves from isolated positions and small cemeteries, were brought into the extension which contains 161 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 14 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to four casualties known or believed to be buried among them. The extension also contains 108 German burials, 62 of which are unidentified.

The news of Hugh’s death reached his family after the Armistice.  They placed a notice in the Liverpool Echo on 02nd December 1918:

“November 8, killed in action, after four years’ service, Private Hugh Henderson, 14th K.L.R., dearly-loved brother of William Henderson (Gibraltar) and Mrs. Henderson, Bootle; also of Clive (France), Alec (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania).”

 

Hugh earned his three medals.

 

His Army effects and a War Gratuity of £24-10 went to his eldest brother Thomas.  No pension card has been found, indicating that Hugh had no dependents.  Mr. Thomas Henderson, 2 Ivydale Road, Moseley Hill, provided information to the CWGC regarding Hugh’s headstone.

 

Thomas had a son in 1920 he named Hugh.

 

Sadly, Hugh has not been found on any memorials.