Henry Hurst Hooton
- Family History
- Military History
- Extra Information
- Photographs
Henry Hurst was the son of Edmund Hooton and his second wife Eliza (née Ashby). Edmund Hooton married first Mary Ann Martin (b. Great Yarmouth) at Mansfield St John the Evangelist on 29 September 1877. They had two children, Mary Ann b. Sneinton 1879 (J/A/S Radford) bap. Nottingham St Thomas 16 October 1879 and Edmund Martin b. Sneinton 9 October 1880 bap. Sneinton St Stephen 30 October 1880. The family lived in Notintone Place, Sneinton; Edmund was a lace warehouseman. Edmund's wife Mary died in April 1883 (burial 17 April) aged about 27. Edmund married Eliza Ashby (b. Spondon Derbyshire) in 1887 at Borrowash Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Derbyshire (A/M/J Shardlow). They had three children of whom one died in infancy. Their surviving children were: George Ashby b. Burton Joyce 1888 bap. Burton Joyce St Helen 15 April 1888 and Henry Hurst b. Nottingham 8 July 1890 bap. Nottingham St Nicholas 10 September 1890. In 1891 Edmund, a lace manufacturer, was living at 7 Hamilton Drive, Standard Hill, Nottingham with his wife Eliza (38), his two children by his first marriage, Mary Ann 11) and Edmund (10) and his two sons by Eliza, George (3) and Henry (under one year). He employed two general domestic servants. The family had moved to 25 Arundel Street, Nottingham, by 1901. Edmund (48) was the manager of a lace warehouse. His daughter Mary (21) and son Henry (10) were in the home on the night of the census but his wife was in a sanatorium in Dorset, Edmund was a railway clerk and a boarder in the home of Henry Smith, a railway agent, and his family in New Mills, Derbyshire, while George was a student boarder at the Moravian Boys' School, Ockbrook, Derby. By 1911 Edmund, now a lace merchant and director of the company Thomas Adams Ltd, and his wife were living at 20 Baker Street, Nottingham, which continued to be his home until his death in 1931. He employed two general domestic servants. All four of his children had left home: Mary Ann was a nurse and working at the West Cornwall dispensary/infirmary in Penzance; Edmund was a market gardener in Guernsey and a boarder in the household of William Pinney, a farmer, and his wife; George was a medical student at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and Henry was an apprentice to a ship builder and one of three boarders (Henry and two women) in the household of Bridget Byrne and her three sisters in Antrim, Ireland. Henry's mother may have died in the 1920s while his father Edmund died on 13 April 1931. A report of his funeral which was held at St Andrew's church followed by interment in Nottingham Church Cemetery, was published in the Nottingham Evening Post on 16 April. It did not name any family mourners but only those from the business community, particularly Messrs. Thomas Adams Ltd., and other groups in which he had an interest including the Freemasons. Edmund had three surviving children, Mary, who was one of the executors of his Will, Edmund and George who had emigrated to South Africa. Of Henry's half-siblings and brother: Mary Ann served in the war as a Sister in the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve. She has not yet been traced on the 1939 England & Wales Register, but was living at 4 Ebers Grove, Nottingham, at the time of her death on 30 September 1946. Edmund Martin Hooton enlisted in September 1914 and was posted to the 11th Service Bn Sherwood Foresters (16757 Private). He joined at Derby on 10 September and then trained at Fensham Camp, Aldershot and finally Sandgate on 2 March 1915. He was discharged 'permanently unfit' on 31 March 1915 after 203 days service: 'not being likely to become an efficient soldier vide para 392/111/CC KR'. According to the medical reports in his service record, Edmund had an epileptic seizure when he was 16 years old and these had become more frequent since joining the army until he was experiencing at least one a month. However, he later served in the 2/2nd Home Counties Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps (495480 Private). He was wounded on 20 September 1917 and discharged on 15 July 1918, being issued with Silver Badge No. 378581. The Silver Badge record gives his address as c/o Mrs Haslam of Lowdham, Nottingham. Edmund married Isabel M Reddish in 1922 (O/N/D Newark) and in 1939 they were living on Boundary Road, Newark. His wife Isabel (b. 25 January 1885 d. 14 December 1961) was an assistant school mistress while he was 'incapacitated ex-serviceman formerly railway clerk'. The record of one other member of the household remains closed. Edmund died on 4 July 1941. George Ashby probably emigrated to South Africa after the war; there is a record of a Dr GA Hooton (32), Mrs Hooton (32) and Miss M Hooton (6) departing London on 26 February 1921 for Durban (Port Natal) onboard SS Goorkha of the Union Castle Mail Steamship Line Co. Ltd. He is registered in the UK & Ireland Medical Directory (1930) as Hooton Geo. Ashby, Britannia Bldgs Durban Natal, MRCS, Eng. LRCP Lond. 1911 (St Bart.) and listed as a surgeon at Addington Hospital Durban.
14th Bn Royal Irish Rifles. Temporary captain. Henry Hurst is recorded as being wounded on 1st July 1916 in the famous Ulster Division action on Thiepval Ridge. The Ulster Divisionwas largely raised from the Protestants of Ulster who had formed the Ulster Volunteers to oppose Irish Home Rule and had then joined as a body in 1914 to show their loyalty to the crown. It was the only division on the first day of the Battle of the Somme which was able to achieve, albeit temporarily, all its first day objectives, winning a number of Victoria Crosses in the process – one of them in H H Hooton’s own battalion (more on this later). Henry Hurst died on 5 August 1916 of wounds he received in action in July 1916 and was buried in Etaples Military Cemetery, France (grave ref. I. B. 4). CWGC - Etaples Military Cemetery (extract): 'During the First World War, the area around Etaples was the scene of immense concentrations of Commonwealth reinforcement camps and hospitals. It was remote from attack, except from aircraft, and accessible by railway from both the northern or the southern battlefields. In 1917, 100,000 troops were camped among the sand dunes and the hospitals, which included eleven general, one stationary, four Red Cross hospitals and a convalescent depot, could deal with 22,000 wounded or sick. In September 1919, ten months after the Armistice, three hospitals and the Q.M.A.A.C. convalescent depot remained. The cemetery contains 10,771 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, the earliest dating from May 1915.'
H H Hooton is also commemorated on the Workman, Clark and Company shipyard memorial which was erected in 1919. It was commissioned by Frank Workman, a ship building tycoon, in memory of his son Edward Workman MC, 5th Royal Irish Rifles and over 120 men from the shipyard who died during the war. It was originally located within the Workman, Clarke Shipyard and was unveiled by Sir Edward Carson MP in 1919. After the yard closed in 1935 it was moved to the pump house. The memorial is the work of renowned Northern Ireland artist Sophia Rosamond Praeger (1867-1954). The design consists of a terracotta portrait profile of Edward flanked by the names of the men from the shipyard who also died. It is now protected by a plastic cover and is described as a work of considerable cultural and historical significance. This is to be found , as stated in the Pump House which is part of Belfast’s Titanic Quarter. The Pump House is in the Thompson Dock area of the Quarter, I believe. H H Hooton’s name is listed in the central column of the memorial, though apparently the names are very difficult to read. He must have been a former employee of the shipyard and, speculating, probably joined up from working there in 1914. In ”The London Gazette”, 27th October 1914, he is recorded as having been gazetted a second lieutenant on 17th September 1914 in The Royal Irish Rifles, 14th Service Battalion (Young Citizens Volunteers). The Young Citizens were known as “the chocolate soldiers” because most of the original volunteers for the battalion had a commercial background and came from “good” families. Article published on 8th August 1916 in the Nottingham Daily Express:- “CAPTAIN H. HOOTON. “Young Nottingham Hero Succumbs to Wounds in France. “News reached Nottingham yesterday [7th August 1916] that Captain Harry Hooton, M.C., D.S.O., of Baker-street, has succumbed in a French hospital to wounds sustained in the British offensive. “Captain Hooton (who was 24, and was a son of Mr. Edmund Hooton, a gentleman well-known in the Nottingham lace trade and a director of Messrs. Thomas Adams, Limited) was engaged with Messrs. Clarke, the Belfast shipbuilders, at the outbreak of war. He volunteered for active service, obtained a commission, and subsequently gained the rank of captain. “His father visited him a week ago, and remained in France until he passed away.” Above article is courtesy of Jim Grundy and his facebook pages Small Town Great War Hucknall 1914-1918 Nottingham Evening Post, 8 August 1916: ‘Died of Wounds. Lieut HH Hooton. Lieut. Henry Hurst Hooton, of the Royal Irish Rifles, who is reported to have died of wounds in a French hospital, was a son of Mr Edmund Hooton, of 20, Baker Street, Nottingham, a director of Messrs. Thomas Adams, Ltd. The deceased officer was engaged in a shipbuilding yard at Belfast when war broke out, but volunteered for active service, and was made lieutenant in April of last year. His father was summoned to his bedside, and was with him until he died.’ (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) Probate: Hooton Henry Hurst of 20 Baker-street Nottingham temporary captain in His Majesty’s Army died 5 August 1916 in France Administration Nottingham 3 November to Edmund Hooton lace manufacturer. Effects £484 12s. 2d. Probate: Hooton Edmund of 20 Baker-street Nottingham died 13 April 1931 Probate Nottingham 1 September to Mary Ann Hooton spinster and Enoch Samuel Cook merchant. Effects £834 4s. 6d. Probate: Hooton Edmund Martin of 51 Boundary[road Newark-on-Trent Nottinghamshire died 4 July 1941 at Bowbridge House Newark-on-Trent Administration Nottingham 4 November to Isabella Mary Hooton widow. Effects £336 16s. 4d. Nottingham Evening Post, 2 October 1946: ‘Hooton. September 30th, Mary Ann (May), 4 Ebers-grove, only daughter of the late Edmund Hooton. Service and Cremation Wilford Hill, Thursday, October 3rd 10 o’clock. No flowers.’ (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) Probate: Hooton Mary Ann of 4 Ebers-grove Nottingham spinster died 30 September 1946 at Vale Brook Lodge Nottingham Probate Nottingham 8 January to Enoch Samuel Cooke manufacturer and Joseph William Ireland solicitors cashier, Effects £8660 2s. 4d.
