Category: Military
Rank: Lieutenant
Regiment or Ship: Royal Engineers
Service Number(s): 1142
Occupation: Photographer
Date of Birth: 25.07.1894
Place of Birth: Beckenham, Kent
Date of Death: 28.06.1988
Place of Death: Bromley, Kent
Address: Swithland, 8 Fairmount Road, Bexhill on Sea
Photos and newspaper articles
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Family Information
Parents: Henry Hiscox (1865-1914) and Lilian Grace Hiscox, nee Oliver, (1868-1948).
Siblings: Vera, born 1895; Brenda (1900-1963).
Dudley married Betty Joanna Gilman (1916-1996) in 1945 in Westminster, Middlesex. When he died Dudley was living at 11 Courtlands, 17 Court Downs Road, Beckenham, Kent, and left an estate of £14,715.
First World War Experience
Dudley enlisted on 21st September 1914 when he was just 20 years and two months old. At that time he was nearly 5’ 10” tall, with a chest measurement of 35½” – expansion 3¼”. He had a fair complexion, with blue eyes and brown hair. He had a callosity in the left clavicle (following a fracture) and had scars over his left eye.
On 3rd October 1914 the following appeared in a local newspaper
“Mr D Hiscox, who was recently on the staff of our contemporary, has joined the cycle corps of the Royal Engineers.”
Again, on 12th June 1915, the following article appeared in another Bexhill newspaper:
“Despatch Riding at Ypres
Bexhill Corporal’s Experiences
Corporal Dudley Hiscox, of the 28th Divisional Signaller’s Company, a former member of the reporting staff of the “Bexhill Observer”, has been home this week for a few day’s visit to his mother, Mrs. H. Hiscox, of “Swithland”, Fairmount-road, arriving in England on Monday. He joined the Army soon after the War broke out, and went to the Front on January 15th, and since then he has been one of forty motor cyclists carrying dispatches in and about Ypres.When he first entered it Ypres was a pretty town with the shops open and business proceeding quietly, but it was reduced to a heap of ruins. Private Hiscox has seen very few Germans, except for the prisoners. Heaps of corpses is a very common sight. Now and again bullets whiz about, but they are usually in the vicinity of the trenches, and shells are more common to the dispatch rider. Three of Corporal Hiscox’ party have been wounded by shell splinters, but he has been lucky enough not to get in the way.
Every time a rider goes out he reckons to get a puncture caused chiefly by nails from the horses’ feet, and then he has to ride on a flat tyre. The cobbled roads soon smash the wheels, and new ones are always being fitted.
Since he had been in France, Corporal Hiscox has seen plenty of Bexhill men, including Major Ticehurst, Barnes, the cricketer of Little Common, and two former employees of Messrs. Pulham and Co. Once he was trying to find some Engineers in Ypres when he heard someone shout “Hullo! How’s the ‘Bexhill Observer’?” He has not been near the Sussex Regiment, but several times his Company have given assistance to the Canadians.
The chief difficulty at first was the slimy, slippery roads. Often a motor-cycle would turn right round and face in the opposite direction to its former course, but the roads were better now although, of course, they were not in repair.
Corporal Hiscox returned to France on Thursday.”
Dudley was awarded the Victory Medal, the British War Medal, and the 15 Star.