Second son of Charles Hudson and Emma Birdsall, Mount Pleasant, Kippax
Died 1st July 1916, aged 26. Thiepval Cemetery Memorial, Pier and Face 11C and 12A
Story
Benjamin is great Uncle to Mr. Barry Chew of East View, Kippax, and his sisters Mary and Margaret. Their Grandmother, Mrs. Mindwell May (née Hudson) was Benjamin’s sister. Benjamin enlisted in October 1914, and by this time, he is thought to have been living in Garforth, whilst working at Ledston Luck Colliery. He landed in France in July 1915, so had been on active service for a year, when he was killed, aged 26, on 1st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Before his death, he had been twice previously wounded. A piece in a local newspaper at the time, said that, “His parents would be glad to hear any news of him from his comrades. He enlisted two years ago and had been in France for 12 months.” His death was eventually confirmed on the 13th April 1917. His body was never found.
Mr. Chew’s grandmother spoke often about her brother, and the family memories of Benjamin are that he was a good sportsman. The photograph above shows him in his football kit in his younger days.
He was awarded all three medals, the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal, and these have been kept in the family.
Nothing was known about where Benjamin was commemorated, until a younger family member, granddaughter of Mrs. Mountford of Garforth, researched and found that his name is on the Thiepval Memorial in France (below). The family have since visited the cemetery.
Battle of the Somme, 1st July to 15th November 1916
The first day of the Battle of the Somme was a disaster for the British Army with 60,000 men casualties on that one day, more than in any other battle. The fatalities included seven men from Kippax: Benjamin Hudson, Charles William Armitage, Harold Varley, John Sharper, Thomas Prince, William Longbottom and Samuel Pennington.
At 7:28am British troops detonated an enormous mine at Lochnagar, south of the village of La Boisselle: 66klbs of ammonal in two charges, 55 feet below the surface, it was the largest of the mines exploded during the assault, resonating as far as London. Despite their colossal size, the mines failed sufficiently to neutralise the German defences in La Boisselle. The ruined village was meant to fall in 20 minutes but by the end of the first day on the Somme, it had not been taken while the III Corps divisions had suffered more than 11,000 casualties. At Mash Valley, the attackers lost 5,100 men before noon and at Sausage Valley near the crater of the Lochnagar mine, there were over 6,000 casualties, the highest concentration on the battlefield. The 34th Division in III Corps had the greatest number of casualties of the British divisions engaged on 1st July.
Anglo-French infantry attacked on 1 July, on the south bank from Foucaucourt to the Somme and from the Somme north to Gommecourt, 2 miles beyond Serre. The French Sixth Army and the right wing of the British Fourth Army inflicted a considerable defeat on the German Second Army but from the Albert–Bapaume road to Gommecourt, the British attack was a disaster where most of the 60,000 British casualties were incurred. Against Joffre’s wishes, Haig abandoned the offensive north of the road, to reinforce the success in the south, where the Anglo-French forces pressed forward towards the German second line.
The first day on the Somme began 141 days of the Battle of the Somme. The German defence south of the Albert–Bapaume road mostly collapsed and the French had much success on both banks of the Somme, as did the British from the army boundary at Maricourt to the Albert–Bapaume road. On the south bank the German defence was made incapable of resisting another attack and a substantial retreat began; on the north bank the abandonment of Fricourt was ordered. The defenders on the commanding ground north of the road inflicted a huge defeat on the British infantry, who had an unprecedented number of casualties. Several truces were negotiated, to recover wounded from no man’s land north of the road. The British took 59,980 casualties, of which 19,236 men were killed, and 585 were declared missing, the French Sixth Army had 1,590 casualties and the German 2nd Army had around 11,000 lossesThe Battle of the Somme lasted 141 days, ending when the 51st Highland Division captured Beaumont Hamel, the final objective of the offensive.
Kippax Roll of Honour 