SECOND LIEUTENANT DUDLEY HURST-BROWN
ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY
15TH JUNE 1915 AGE 18
BURIED: DICKEBUSCH NEW MILITARY CEMETERY, BELGIUM
Dudley Hurst-Brown celebrated his eighteenth birthday on 8 June, was wounded in action five days later and died two days after this. He had been at the front for five months, correctly predicting in the last letter his parents received from him that he saw "but little chance of ever safely getting home again".
His parents' inscription speaks the truth, "last year but a boy",. Last year Hurst-Brown had been 17, he was only 18 and seven days when he was killed. This was far too young to be at the front, the rule was 19, unless you had your parents' signed permission, which he must have done. In fact more than just their permission as his father had actively pulled strings to get him into the army. Dudley Hurst-Brown was still at school when the war broke out, with plans to study for another year, go to Oxford and then join the army. The war changed all this and he decided he wanted to join up immediately - except at 17 he was too young. So his father wrote to the Director of Military Training at the War Office and Dudley was commissioned into the Special Reserve on the 11 August, just one week after the outbreak of war.
'Martyr' is an interesting word. It's the first time it's been used in an inscription in this project, unless as a quote from the Te Deum. The Hurst-Browns use the word for both their sons, Dudley's elder brother, Cecil, died of wounds on 25 September 1915. Were they martyrs? In that they were both volunteers, and both therefore willingly gave themselves to a cause they believed in, knowing that it could lead to their deaths, yes they were.
Dudley and Cecil's inscriptions were virtually identical but with two interesting differences: Cecil is addressed as "Our darling Cecil", Dudley as "Darling Dudley". Dudley's finishes with the word "Mother", which is not there on Cecil's - yet both were signed for by Mr W Hurst-Brown, their father.
Cecil Hurst-Brown is commemorated on Westminster School's First World War website
Dudley Hurst-Brown is commemorated on the Winchester College First World War website.