Connaught Rangers, 5th Battalion, Service No. 11005
Killed in action 7th December 1915, aged 22
Story
Born in Kippax in 1893, Peter was the son of Malacky and Hannah Hession, and lived at 3 Albert Street, Bowers Row, before the family moved to 43 Hollinghurst, Allerton Bywater. He was a Colliery Blacksmith’s Striker before the War, and enlisted in Leeds on the 7th December 1914. On the 17th January 1916, Private Hession was acknowledged as being missing in action since the 7th December 1915, from an unknown place. His death was officially recognised on the 13th June 1916 as having taken place on the 7th December 1915, in Salonika, Bulgaria. He was killed exactly one year after having enlisted.
Connaught Rangers 5th Battalion The confusion surrounding the fate of Private Hession is due to his Battalion’s defeat during an all-out assault in the mountains by the Bulgarians who attacked, bayonets fixed, through the mist. Two brigades of Bulgarians fell on the 5th Connaught Rangers, and routed them. 138 men were killed in mostly hand-to-hand fighting, and a further 130 were taken prisoner. Peter Hession was by the side of Edgar Jackson when he died. Edgar was captured and taken prisoner, but moved to Kippax after the War. Peter is commemorated at the Doiran cemetery, Greece. Peter’s brother Patrick, of the Royal Army Medical Corps, was also killed, and a second brother James was wounded in December 1917.
Kippax Roll of Honour 