Horace Charles Stubbings

Private 10474 Horace Charles Stubbings was born in Hingham on 25th July 1895¹. He originally enlisted as 6665 in the 12th Lancers in Norwich on 28th August 1914, transferring to the 3rd Royal Munster Fusiliers on 2nd June 1915. He served with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force from 17th July 1915 but, on 4th August 1915, at Achi Baba, an exploding shell blew inside the trench and buried him. He was sent home on 13th September 1915 where he was treated at the Beaufort War Hospital in Bristol and discharged no longer fit for army service on 4th January 1916 as a result of shell concussions (epilepsy).  

He died on 6th January 1918 aged 20 according to the gravestone; however, the burial register records that he was buried on January 24^th 1917 aged 21. He is buried at Deopham St Andrew Churchyard Grave 40 (aka B53²), but his name does not appear on the War Memorial in the church nor on the Norfolk Roll of Honour. 

He was the son of John and Susannah Stubbings – his war record says William and Sally of Hardingham which partially agrees with the 1901 Census which has William and Susannah living in Hingham with sisters Winifred (1 year old) and Nellie (8 months). Horace was a clerk at the time of his enlistment and at the time of his receipt of a pension he lived at Mill House in Deopham.  

There are links to the others who lost their lives in the two World Wars here.

Footnote

1. Some of the information on this page is based on a booklet published by Chris Clarke, who kindly gave permission for its use on the Deopham website. ↩︎
2. See here for the graveyard layout. ↩︎