BORN WELTON 1891. SON OF JOSEPH HOTSON (1842-1020) AND ALICE ANN JACKSON (1863-1924), FROM WELTON. ONE OF NINE CHILDREN. THREE SONS DIED IN WW1.
HE WAS UNMARRIED. WORKED AS A GROCER’S ASSISTANT AT COWGATE, WELTON, BROUGH. ENLISTED HULL 08/12/1915. POSTED TO FRANCE ON 02/06/1916. SERVED WITH THE HULL PALS. KILLED AT OPPY WOOD, ON 03/05/1917, AGED 26. HE IS COMMEMORATED ON THE ARRAS MEMORIAL TO THE MISSING. HIS DEATH AND PHOTOGRAPH WERE PUBLISHED IN THE LOCAL NEWSPAPER*
ALL SIX HOTSON BROTHERS SERVED DURING WW1. HIS BROTHERS, WERE PRIVATE, JOSEPH THOMAS HOTSON, 2354, 1/4TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT, KILLED AT YPRES, ON 24/04/1915, AGED 26.
PRIVATE, ARTHUR HOTSON, 8007, 1ST LINCOLNSHIRE BATTALION, KILLED ON THE SOMME, ON 25/09/1916, AGED 22. BOTH HAD ENLISTED TOGETHER IN AUGUST 1914. OTHER BROTHERS, PRIVATE, HENRY HOTSON, 6TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT AND LIEUTENANT, GEORGE HOTSON 4TH EYR, WERE BOTH WOUNDED TWICE. ANOTHER BROTHER, PRIVATE, JOHN WILLIAM HOTSON SERVED WITH THE NORTHUMBERLAND FUSILIERS, WAS ALSO WOUNDED AND TAKEN PRISONER. ALL BROTHERS ARE LISTED ON THE WELTON CUM MELTON, ROLL OF HONOUR BOARD, AT ST HELEN’S CHURCH, WELTON, WITH 137 MEN WHO SERVED FROM THE VILLAGE.
WELTON COMBINED WITH BROUGH AND ELLOUGHTON TO BUILD A SHARED WAR WW1 MEMORIAL. HOWEVER, NONE OF THE HOTSON BROTHERS ARE LISTED.
The attack on Oppy Wood, part of the Battle of Arras, was a significant battle for the East Yorkshire Regiment and particularly for the city of Hull. All four Hull Pals battalions were involved on 3 May and all suffered heavy casualties, with 40% of those present killed or injured. 2nd Lieutenant Jack Harrison, a local teacher and rugby player with Hull FC, won a posthumous Victoria Cross for his bravery in rushing a machine gun position to protect his platoon. His body was never found.
The village of Oppy in France had been in German hands since October 1914 and was part of a formidable defensive system including trenches, dug-outs and thick barbed wire defences. During the Battle of Arras, which began in April 1917, the British tried to take Oppy. The first attack was a failure. A second attack was partially successful. The third attack on 3 May, known officially as the Third Battle of the Scarpe, was again unsuccessful with significant loss of life. The troops were ordered to attack at 3.45am, rather than at dawn, and the defending Germans could easily see the line of British soldiers clearly lit by the full moon. The British continued to attack Oppy and were finally successful the following year. The City of Hull Memorial at Oppy was unveiled in 1927 and commemorates the men of the Hull Pals who were killed on 3 and 4 May 1917.
