This “Kingston-Upon-Hull Memorial” remembers all of Hull’s losses during the First World War. The 11,053 names recorded here, reflect the wider Hull casualties at the time. It records all service personnel who died, that were born in Hull, or resided, and worked in the city, recorded on official, and national records as well as local Hull memorials.
It includes:-
6,569 men who enlisted in Hull, and died in WW1. Of these 195, died in 1914; 816, in 1915; 1,802, in 1916; 1,781, in 1917; 1,971, in 1918 & 6, in 1919. However, only 4,330, or 66% of these men, were born in Hull. 250 men enlisted in Hull and were killed from other parts of Yorkshire; as were, 208 men from Lincolnshire; 86 Londoners; 84 men from other parts of England; 21 men from Scotland; 24 from Wales; 17 from Ireland and 30 men from Australia, Canada and New Zealand, that had a Hull connection, either by birth, work or residency.
All the names of the dead, inscribed on Hull street shrines; church memorials, work place memorials and other “Rolls of Honour”;
All servicemen buried in CWGC graves in Hull cemeteries,
all female personnel from Hull, known to have died in WW1;
Those who were Hull born, but died outside the city, fighting for other towns and regiments;
All Hull men that died serving other Commonwealth nations; all Hull civilians killed locally in air raids, and Hull servicemen who died in accidents, training and illness away from the battlefront.
All servicemen with a Hull address and were awarded a War Pension that died from the consequences of war, up to 1930.
Discharged Hull servicemen, awarded the Silver War Badge, who died in the ten years after the war. Many of these casualties, died prematurely of injuries and disease contracted during the war, but are often missed on war memorials.
Ex-servicemen who died in Hull Asylums after the war
Sailors and seaman, from all around the world, that were drowned serving on Hull ships lost during the war. They include 475 from the Royal Navy, Royal Marine and Royal Navy Reserves, plus Hull Merchant Seaman.
1,117 men from the East Riding that enlisted in Hull, and included Hull on their postal address.
It includes men from neighbouring towns and villages, associated with Hull, such as 600 men from Beverley and surrounding villages, Hessle (104 men), Cottingham (105); Hedon (22); Willerby (14), Sutton, (36); North Ferriby (24) and Hedon (22) and other nearby East Riding villages, with strong links to Hull.
It can be evidenced that over 9,845 men with a direct link to Hull, died in the First World War, a figure much higher than official national records, but lower than the 12,000 war dead reported by the Hull Lord Mayor in 1924.
This ‘Kingston Upon Hull Memorial’, data base, can analyse all these casualties, by name, rank, regiment, service, age, or street. Casualties can also be cross referenced by postcode, and date of death, to key dates in the war, to reveal how events impacted casualties on different areas, over time. It shows :- https://ww1hull.com/statistics-charted
– 15 Hull servicemen, on average, were killed and wounded every day during the First World War.
– Some days were worse than others – 115 Hull men, died on the 1st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme;
– 241 Hull men died on the 13th November 1916, when the Hull Pals attacked Serre, on the Somme:
– 131 Hull men died on the 3rd May 1917, when the Hull Pals attacked Oppy Wood, near Arras:
– 77 Hull men died on 9th April 1917, serving with the 1st East Yorkshire Battalion, on the first day of the Arras offensive:
– 157 Hull men, died between the 21st and 23rd March 1918, during the Great German Offensive.
– Over one hundred Hull families lost two or more from the same family and at least ten Hull families lost three sons. Four Hull families are known to have lost four sons. – https://ww1hull.com/category/our-losses/brothers-that-died
– 26 streets, in Hull, lost 50 men or more, during the WW1. Some of these, were Bean Street (122 men); Waterloo Street (99); Spyvee Street (79); Nornabell Street (75); Gillett Street (72); Walker Street (69), Wassand Street (69); Walcott Street (68); Barnsley Street (67); Courtney Street (65); Buckingham Street (63); St. Paul’s Street (59); Sculcoates Lane (57); New George Street (57); and Clarendon Street (54). Hundreds more Hull men died from surrounding streets along Hessle Road, Newland Avenue, Holderness Road, Beverley Road, Anlaby Road and in the industrial areas of Witham and Wincolmlee. Local Newspapers reported on the hundreds of street shrines, erected in Hull (more so, than any other UK city). Some of these street shrines remain today and provide a valuable record of those who served and died from each Hull street. – https://ww1hull.com/hull-street-shrines
– Over one hundred Hull families lost two or more from the same family and at least ten Hull families lost three sons. Four Hull families are known to have lost four sons.
– Hull’s casualties were mainly Privates, Non Commissioned Officers or from other lower ranks. There are less than 250 Officer recorded deaths in Hull.
– The first Hull casualty was Thomas Pearson Taylor, accidentally killed on 21/08/1914. The first Hull man to die in action, was Frederick Mileham, killed on 24/08/1914.
– The first reported Hull death, was Private, Robert W. Parker, of the 1st West Yorkshire Regiment, from Adelaide Street, Hull (Hull Daily Mail, 19 Nov 1914).
– One of the last casualties, was William “Billie” Glew, of the Royal Air Force, from Bridge Gate, Howden (Hull Daily Mail 18 Jan 1919). Commissioned on 6th August 1918, he was 18 years and ten months old, when he died, on 6th November 1918 (Hull Daily Mail 18 Jan 1919).
– The oldest war Hull casualties were two sailors, both aged 67. The Youngest were three boys, each aged 14 and killed on active service.
– The majority of Hull’s losses were young men, with 67% dying, aged 30 years or younger. This includes 1,249 Hull Teenagers, of which, 95 died, aged Seventeen, 45, were aged Sixteen, and 9 were aged only Fifteen years old.
– Hull’s casualties accelerated as the war progressed, with most Hull men killed in 1918, the final year of the war. The 329 Hull men killed in 1914, increased to 1,266, lost in 1915, 2,450 in 1916, 2,593 in 1917 and 2,711 deaths in 1918.
– Another 298 Hull servicemen died in 1919, being killed in the civil wars of Russia, Iraq and Ireland, also clearing battlefields of dangerous munitions, succumbing to war wounds or disease. This was consistent with the rest of country. Britain lost more men in 1918, the year of victory, than in any other year of the war, and more British soldiers were killed in 1918, than the entire Second World War.
– As war injuries worsened, so did the death toll. Hulls War pension records show that 107 former Hull servicemen died in 1920, 105 in 1921, 26 in 1922 and another 19 in 1924. As war pensions were difficult to obtain, and not everyone applied, the losses could be much higher.
– Hull men fought from the very start of the war, until its end. They served in the all major battles – the Marne, Gallipoli, Jutland, the Somme, Arras and Passchendaele They fought in the Middle East, East Africa, the Western Front, Salonika and Russia, on land, sea and air.
– Hull men served across all armed forces worldwide and are buried at 961 cemeteries across the globe. Many have no known grave. The National War Memorials to the missing, at Thiepval, on the Somme, lists at least 784 missing “Hull men”; the Ypres, Menin Gate Memorial, records another 485; the Tyne Cot memorial, Belgium, records another 315 and 830 sailors from Hull ships, are recorded on the Tower Hill Naval Memorial, London.
– The war at sea was the Hull’s longest war and probably the most harshest. Hull sailors fought countless battles daily, mine sweeping, fishing and delivering vital war materials. Hull trawlers were being lost to stray sea mines, long after the war ended. This Hull Memorial shows at least 1,175 Hull sailors, who died at sea.
– Hundreds of Hull men were decorated for bravery. Two Victoria Crosses were awarded, first to Private Jack Cunningham, on 13/11/1916 and then to Second Lieutenant, Jack Harrison, on 03/05/1917, both were “Hull Pals”, serving with the East Yorkshire Regiment.
While Hull is more remembered for its extensive war damage during WW2, it should never be forgotten that 20 years before this, Hull suffered far greater casualties in WW1. Research from this website, shows that Hull related war deaths were at least 11,053 and the male population of Hull fell during and after the war. Hull even created a unique, Great War Civic Trust, to support its 20,000 wounded after the war. This supported hundreds of Hull servicemen and their families, long before the Welfare state and the National Health Service were created and remained in operation until the 1980’s when only a few WW1 survivors remained. – https://ww1hull.com/the-city-of-hull-great-war-trust
We can only speculate on the upheaval and trauma caused by 1914-1918 war. Those that lived through it are now gone, but newspapers hint of the suffering,- families left heirless, penniless, orphaned, and homeless by war. Stories of suicides, depression and untreated madness, the hardships faced by returning veterans, the ever visible presence of war wounded, who were often left to struggle, unaided.
Hull’s “true” losses, may never be known, but with the release of more online records, and regular contributions to this website, new Hull casualties are being added to the Kingston Upon Hull 1914-18 Memorial website.
If you have a Hull casualty from the WW1 not listed here simply message this website with details. Let’s remember them.
