Roll of Honour 2023

P AGE 62

W ORLD W AR O NE (1914 - 1918) INCLUDING THOSE WHO DIED LATER AS A RESULT OF THIS WAR

S T . E DWARD ’ S S CHOOL , O XFORD R OLL OF H ONOUR

Name FRANCIS REGINALD HUDSON (Acting Capt)

Arrive SES 1905

Lef SES 1907

Roll Number 1209 Died 21:03:1918

Set / House A

Where BIGGIN HILL, ENGLAND Serving with ROYAL FLYING CORPS

Age 28

Buried All Saints’ Churchyard, Huntsham, Mid Devon Remembered War Memorial , St. Martin’s Church Low Marlow, Chester, The St. Edward’s School Chapel (Wooden Plaque) and The Cloisters Stone Memorial Born Earlsfield, London in 1890, the elder of two SES brothers, sons of a clergyman. He spent a short and uneventful time at the School and was in the Shell Form. In 1908 he joined the Merchant Navy, transferring to the British Indian Navy in 1911, serving on the hospital ship “Loyalty”, attached to the Indian Expeditionary Force. He had married in the meantime. In August 1914 he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Worcestershire Regiment in France. By November he had been slightly wounded and was recovering in London. In July 1915 he had recovered and ‘was looking for a new commission’. That commission became available in the Royal Flying Corps, when he gained an Aviator’s Certificate in December 1915. During his training he suffered ‘a serious accident’ which laid him off for nearly a year, but still managed to pass his final exams. In October 1916 he was officially a Flying Officer. In March 1917 he was wounded again but was soon back in action as an Acting Captain by January 1918. Two months later he was killed in a flying accident over Biggin Hill at night. The aircraft caught fire in the air and then crashed, cause unknown. ‘He was a keen and highly efficient pilot and universally liked by his brother officers’ (His Commanding Officer).