BORN HULL 1893. SON OF MARK HOTCHKIN (1864-1930) & EMMA (MINNIE) HOTCHKIN (1868-1951), OF 7 SOPHIA’S TERRACE. SPYVEE STREET, HULL. HE HAD THREE BROTHERS AND FOUR SISTERS. A FORMER RECKITTS WORKER. HE WAS DESCRIBED AS 5 FOOT, 4 INCHES TALL, 34-36 INCH CHEST. HE ENLISTED WITH HIS BROTHERS, IN THE HULL PALS AND WAS KILLED WITH HIS OLDER BROTHER, ERNEST IN THE SAME ATTACK, AT SERRE, ON 13/11/1916, AGED 23. THEY HAD BOTH SERVED IN THE ARMY FOR 1 YEAR AND 338 DAYS AND ARE COMMEMORATED ON THE THIEPVAL MEMORIAL TO THE MISSING ON THE SOMME.
Hull Pals Memorial Posts. PRIVATES ERNEST AND FRED HOTCHKIN 12/1225 and 12/1226. Ernest was born in 1888 and his brother Fred in 1894. They were two of six children to Mark and Minnie Hotchkin of 7 Sophias Terrace, Spyvee Street, Hull. Ernest married Evelyn Tride on March 6th 1915 and the couple had a son, Robert, who will never have known his father. Ernest and Fred had queued together outside City Hall on 21st December 1914 and joined the 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, 3rd Hull Pals. They trained together, served in Egypt together, and died together on 13th November 1916 on the Somme. They are still out there together as neither brother was ever found and their names are commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing. Two telegrams arrived together on the same morning. Heartbreaking.
Serre, 13th November 1916 | Kingston upon Hull War Memorial 1914 – 1918 (ww1hull.com)
