1st Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment
Hugh Godfrey de Lisle Bush was born in 1892 at Alveston (near Thornbury), the eldest of three sons and a daughter born to Alfred George de Lisle Bush and his wife Florence Katherine (nee Lysaght). His father was an iron merchant and the family lived at Eastington Park, near Stonehouse.
He was educated at Eton College and was a member of their OTC. From 1906 to 1913 he was a member of the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars Yeomanry, rising in rank from Private to 2nd Lieutenant.
He applied for a commission on 13 August 1914 stating his residence as Eastington Park and occupation a blast furnace assistant manager with J Lysaght Limited. On 15 August 1914 he was posted to 3 (Reserve) Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment and later attached to the 1st Battalion, whom he joined on the Western Front on 20 September 1914.
For an act of gallantry at Givenchy on 25 January 1915 he was awarded the Military Cross, ….having rescued under heavy fire and brought again into action one of his machine guns with its compliment of men, which had been buried by a shell.
He was also mentioned in despatches for gallant and distinguished service in the field on 31 May 1915.
On 6 October 1915, whilst in the area of Chalk Pit Wood, during the Battle of Loos, he sustained a compound fracture of his right thigh due to shellfire: a serious wound which necessitated an immediate operation in France. On 23 October 1915 he was repatriated to the King Edward Vll Hospital in London, where he remained until the end of that year.
In those days before antibiotics, his wound stubbornly refused to heal and he suffered recurring abscesses and fevers. His condition improved little during the course of 1916 and in December he was admitted to a Red Cross Hospital for Officers in Torquay. His latest Army Medical Board had advised an operation as the wound was not healing properly and he had limited movement of his knee joint. His general health was described as poor and spirit low.
In early January 1917 he underwent an unsuccessful operation to try to clear the infection. A London surgeon, engaged by his family, advised that his only hope was the amputation of his infected leg. The shock of the operation proved too great and at 7am on 17 January 1917 he died as a result of cardiac failure. He was 24 years of age.
He had married in 1915 and his wife, Marjorie, had placed a stone cross over his grave in the churchyard of St Michael and All Angels,Eastington. Later, his parents were to lie alongside him.
His two brothers also served in the Great War – Captain John Stewart de Lisle Bush was shot down on 25 August 1917, near Warlincourt, whilst serving with 41 Squadron, RFC and is buried at Honnechy British Cemetery. The youngest brother, Claude, served with the Glosters and King’s African Rifles and survived the war. He rejoined the Glosters during the Second World War but died in January 1941 and is also buried at Eastington.
St Michael and All Angels, Eastington