JONATHAN BIGGS HOBBS
Unlike his brother James Hobbs who followed their father into the Royal Marines Artillery, Jonathan opted for a life in the army.
The father of James and Jonathan was James snr. (b. 1852 at Potterne, near Devizes in Wiltshire) who was first positively identified in the 1881 census whilst serving at Fort Cumberland, Eastney. With him were his wife Jane (b. 1857, nee Underwood, also from Potterne) and their children Jonathan (b. 1878), George (also b. 1878) and Jane (b. 1881).
The family moved a short distance away, to 28 Henderson Road, Eastney in time for the 1891 census. There they had further children Annie (b. 1883) and Mary (b. 1890). James snr. died before the next census in 1901 which found the widow Jane at 13 Owen Street, still in Eastney, with Jane, Annie, Mary and recent arrival William (b. 1897). Jonathan had by this time left the household and presumably joined the army as he does not appear in the census.
At the outbreak of the Great War Jonathan was 36 years old and serving with the 1st Battalion, the Wiltshire Regiment which landed at Rouen on the 14th August 1914. He was killed in June the following year
FURTHER INFORMATION
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists Private Jonathan Biggs Hobbs, (4744), 1st Battalion Wiltshire Regiment, died on 16/06/1915, age 37. Buried at Aeroplane Cemetery, Ieper, Belgium. Son of James Biggs Hobbs, and Jane Hobbs.
Jonathan Hobbs is remembered on a Family Gravestone in Highland Road Cemetery which also commemorates his brother James, and on the Cenotaph. He is not listed in the 'National Roll of the Great War'.
Tim Backhouse
April 2014