10th Battalion, South Wales Borderers
Hubert Charles Ayres was born in Avening in 1893. He was the son of John Ayres, an agricultural labourer and his wife Lucy Ann. Originally Lucy Ann Ind, she had been widowed by the time she was 28, having had a daughter (Rhoda May, born about 1881) and married John Ayres on 13 September 1890.The couple went on to have eight children, all living at the time of the 1911 Census, however Lucy had died in 1909, age 47. Hubert’s brothers were Ernest, Kenneth, Edward and Wilby and his sisters Winnie, Lizzie and Mabel.
At the time of the 1911 Census John Ayres and his children were living at Bell Corner, Avening and Hubert’s occupation was shown as a ‘cloth worker’.
In September 1911 Hubert was in trouble with the police. The Gloucestershire Echo of 15 September reported that he had been charged at Nailsworth Police Court with stealing the sum of £4 12s 6d from the house of a next door neighbour, having entered it via a window. An appeal for leniency was made as his father ‘was lying dead at home’. This was granted and he was bound over. John Ayres was buried on 16 September 1911, age 49 – was the money stolen to pay for his funeral?
Unfortunately no Army Service Record has survived for Hubert, however we do know that he served with the 10th (Service) Battalion of the South Wales Borderers (SWB) (also known as the 1st Gwent) and enlisted at Cwm, Monmouthshire. The battalion had been raised in Brecon and spent its time in training at Colwyn Bay and near Winchester, before being posted to France, as part of 115 Brigade, 38th Division on 3 December 1915.
Hubert’s Medal Index Card indicates that he crossed to France with the battalion on that date. He must have been a competent soldier as he was promoted up to Corporal and the Medal Rolls for the 10th SWB show him serving as a Lance Sergeant and also spending a period on attachment to 115 Brigade HQ.
The Register of Soldiers’ Effects kept at the National Army Museum reveals that Hubert died of wounds on 9 June 1918 at 3rd Western General Hospital, Cardiff. He was aged 25. How, when and where he came to be wounded is unknown but examination of the Battalion’s War Diary for the first months of 1918 does indicate that a number of casualties were sustained whilst the Battalion was in the trenches near to Albert and Bouzincourt, in the Somme sector. His sister Winifred M Brown was the beneficiary of his war gratuity.
Hubert’s body was brought back to Avening for burial (on 15 June 1918) in the village churchyard, where a standard CWGC headstone now marks his grave. He is commemorated on the 1914-18 War Memorial Tablet inside Avening (Holy Cross) Church.
Researched by Graham Adams 14 April 2017