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Auction: 23112 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 474

Three: Corporal C. Hughes, 1st Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, who was killed in action during the first day of the Battle of Loos

1914-15 Star (11347 L.Cpl C. Hughes. R.W.Fus.); British War and Victory Medals (11347 Cpl. C. Hughes. R.W.Fus.), good very fine (3)

Charlies Hughes was born at Stockport in 1896, the son of Edward and Elizabeth Hughes, of 14 Street, Petersgate, Stockport. Enlisting at Manchester with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers on 11 December 1914 he arrived with his unit on 25 January 1915. He saw heavy fighting here, writing a letter home in April which stated:

'We have now been out of the trenches eight days, quite a long holiday. We shall shortly be in again and expect some stiff fighting. In the fighting about a fortnight ago, I had one or two narrow escapes. On one occasion, a big piece of shrapnel scraped across my knuckles and just took skin off. Again, four of us were going out to men [SIC] telephone wire and left our packs and overcoats. We had only just left the farm when a "Jack Johnson" hit it square and this was followed up by a few high explosive shells. There was not much of the farm left in a few minutes and I did not go back for my overcoat and pack, you can be sure"

This unit was one of those sent into action on 25 September on the opening day of the Battle of Loos. As they advanced towards German lines they came under a hail of machine gun fire from the Hohenzollern Redoubt. Casualties mounted but the attack continued pushing into the Hulloch Quarries before they were unable to advance further. They consolidated there but losses had been appallingly high with highest ranked survivor being a Lieutenant. Hughes was killed during the attack and is commemorated upon the Loos Memorial; sold together with copied research including M.I.C., Soldier's Died in the Great War entry and an extract from More Than A Name as well as an original slip of issue.

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Sold for
£110

Starting price
£100