Hugh Kingston Llewellyn Statham: Thursday 6th September 1917
Hugh enlisted at Valcartier 17th (or 23rd depending on source) September 1914 as Private 16813 with the 7th Batt. 88th Victoria Fusiliers and arrived in Europe with the first contingent CEF. His attestation paper describes him as 5’9” tall, 36” chest with 3” expansion, fair complexion, blue eyes, scar middle finger left hand, scar left wrist, 2 scars right forearm, mole centre-back, brown hair and Church of England. His address at enlistment was Thetis Island British Columbia.
He was commissioned into 3rd Batt. Dorsetshire Reg. 29 December 1914 and attached to the 1st Batt. He was killed in action, having survived 3 years, and is buried in Coxyde Military Cemetery. His Battalion was due to be taken off the front line on 1 October, 3 weeks after he was killed. His probate record gives him an address in Hampstead. Probate of £109 4s 8d was granted to his father, acting as attorney for his daughter-in-law.
Hugh was born 3 November 1886 in Cheddar and was educated at Windlesham and Dover College. He had an elder brother who became a doctor and served as a medical officer during WW1 (mentioned in despatches and awarded OBE) and a younger sister, Meta Freeman.
He was the son of the Rev. Samuel Percy Hammond Statham BA and Meta Statham. His father had been Chaplain to HM Forces, Christ Church, Dover and lived, in 1901 at Christ Church Villa in Dover where he was incumbent at St Mary in the Castle. By the outbreak of war, he was Chaplin to Wandsworth Prison. He was famous as author of a number of historical reference books including “The History of the Castle, Town and Port of Dover” published 1899. He died on 6 April 1940. Mrs Statham is listed as the daughter of The Venerable Hugh Stowell Gill, Archdeacon of the Isle of Man.
In 1903 Hugh emigrated to Canada on his own with his passage paid by his father and worked as a rancher, and so it is likely he never lived in the Parish, although he may have visited on leave. In 1904 he moved to America crossing the border at Winnipeg with $12. He must have returned to Canada by 1911 when he is listed on the Canadian census in British Columbia married to Margaret Renee nee Heneage, who had emigrated from England in 1906 and later gave her address as Jubilee Hospital, Victoria, British Columbia and so she may possibly have become a nurse or similar.
They had two children, Hugh Henry Llewellyn, born 15 April 1912 and Margaret Joan, born 17 November 1913. Hugh went on to serve with the Canadian Army in WW2. Margaret married Ken Ogden who was wounded in Italy serving with her brother.