DOUGLAS GEORGE HOULT
1895 – 14th April 1918
Douglas George Hoult was the son of George Hoult and Alice Mary Hoult (nee Hunt). They were
married in the Evesham district in the last day of 1890. Shortly afterwards they moved to Penarth,
and had five children: Muriel Alice, born about February 1891, Alexander Rupert, (also referred to
as Rupert Alexander) born in the first quarter of 1893, Douglas George, born in the first quarter of
1895, Percival Charles, born in the third quarter of 1897, Ernest Gordon, born in the last quarter of
1899.
Sadly, Aliced died in the last quarter of 1899. The cause of her death is not known but it may well
have been connected to the birth of Ernest. This left George with a young family to bring up and
later censuses show some of the children in the care of relatives in Penarth, or Bretforton in
Worcestershire, where Alice had relatives.
The 1901 census shows George, Douglas and Rupert at 59 Grove Terrace, Penarth and Percival
living with his aunt and uncle, Grove Terrace being in the ecclesiastical parish of All Saints. In
1911, Douglas, then sixteen, was a carter for a fishmonger and was living at 59 Grove Terrace, with
his father George, who was a railway carter, born in Llandaff, and with his sister, Muriel (20), who
kept house for the family.
Douglas served in the 14th Battalion, the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, with the rank of Private
(service number 33704) He enlisted in Grove Park, London. The 14th (1st Birmingham Pals)
Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, was raised in Birmingham in September 1914. After
training they joined 95th Brigade, 32nd Division, on 26th June 1915. They left for France on 21st
November 1915, landing in Boulogne. On 28th December 1915 they transferred to 13th Brigade,
5th Division and took over a section of the front line, between St. Laurent Blangy, and the southern
edge of Vimy Ridge, near Arras. They moved south to reinforce the Somme and were in action at
High Wood, the Battle of Guillemont, the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, the Battle of Morval and the
Battle of Le Transloy. In October they moved to Festubert and remained there until March 1917
when they were moved in preparation for the Battle of Arras.