62nd Company Machine Gun Corps
Campbell Hudson was born on 12 December 1886, the only son of John Owen and Alice Hudson of Ruspidge, Cinderford. John Owen Hudson owned a grocery store. Campbell was educated at Colston School, Bristol. His father died in 1895 and his mother continued to run the store. Campbell did not appear to be part of the business giving his occupation as ‘house painter’ when he enlisted on 11 December 1915 expressing a preference to serve in the Army Service Corps.
He was placed in Army Reserve and was posted to 11th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment on 26 April 1916. He was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps on 28 July and, after training, arrived in France on 13 September 1916 as a machine gunner. He served in 62nd Company Machine Gun Corps until his death on 4 October 1917.
Private Campbell Hudson has no known grave and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial. He is also commemorated on Cinderford town War Memorial, the plaque in Ruspidge Memorial Hall, and also on the memorial which was erected in the Cinderford Bridge Methodist Church. The latter has been converted to a dwelling and the location of the memorial is unknown, although believed to still exist. Correspondence preserved with his service record sadly catalogues his bereaved mother’s year long battle with the Army bureaucracy to claim his personal belongings and pay due to him.