Hobbs, CWSJ
(1895 - 1916)
Key Facts
DATE OF BIRTH:
1st January 1895
YEARS ATTENDED THE COLLEGE:
1909 - 1911
HOME ADDRESS WHEN AT THE COLLEGE:
Rotherwick, Casewick Road, West Norwood
REGIMENT
Royal Army Service Corps
FINAL RANK:
2nd Lieutenant
DATE OF DEATH:
31st May 1916
AGE AT DEATH:
21
WHERE HE DIED (or was wounded)
Aldershot
LOCATION OF GRAVE OR MEMORIAL:
Hendon Cemetery and Crematorium. F. 8. 22094
2nd Lieutenant Cecil William St. John Hobbs
Born in Garston, Lancashire, on New Year’s Day 1895, Cecil was the youngest of four children of Frederick Hobbs, an Irish-born Admiralty clerk, and his wife, Anne. He came to the College at the beginning of 1909, just over a year after his elder brother Harold had left, and went on to be at Dulwich for the next three years, leaving at Christmas 1911.
Cecil enlisted in the Honourable Artillery Company in October 1914, but struggled because of a weak left arm, the result of breaking it in three places several years earlier. As a result he was ruled ineligible for foreign service, and placed in a clerical role. In May 1916 he took a commission in the Royal Army Service Corps but began to suffer serious issues with exhaustion and nerves from overwork. On May 31st, two weeks after taking up his commission, he passed away, whilst in his bath in Aldershot.
