10th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
Richard Hubert Hanks was born at Painswick on 6 March 1890. Prior to enlistment he was a bricklayer with local builders Burdock & Sons and also a Hireman with the local brigade. He played cricket for Painswick and was a bell ringer and chorister at the parish church.
He enlisted at Stroud on 1 January 1915 and joined the 10th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment. After training in Cheltenham and on Salisbury Plain the battalion was posted to France on 9 August 1915. Six weeks later it was to be in the front line on the opening day of the Battle of
Loos, with the objective of taking the German front line near to the Bois Carre and pressing on
across the Loos – La Bassee Road to Hulluch. The attack went in at 6.30am but unfortunately the
wind had dropped and the supporting British gas hung about the 10th Glosters’ trenches, causing many casualties. The weakened attack managed to take the German front line but altered before it could reach the Loos – La Bassee Road.
During the attack Hubert was wounded in the knee and was evacuated to a Base Hospital, where
he spent Hive weeks before being repatriated to a hospital located in the pavilion of Trent Bridge
Cricket Ground, Nottingham. On 23 November 1915 surgeons were forced to amputate his leg.
He never recovered from the operation and died, eleven days later, on 4 December aged 25, leaving a widow and two young children.
Hubert’s funeral took place with ‘full Fireman’s honours’ at Painswick Parish Church on 8 December and his body was laid to rest in the town cemetery.