Private Hubert Brasier Grant
| Date of Birth | c. 1898 |
|---|---|
| Age at Death | 19 |
| Date of Death | 7 August 1917 |
| Service Number | 31810 |
| Military Service | 9th Battalion East Surrey Regiment |
| Merton Address | 68 Adela Avenue, West Barnes |
| Local Memorial | Rutlish School, Merton |
Additional Information
Hubert Brasier Grant, the only son of Henry William and Jane Ann Clara Grant, was born in Wimbledon c1898. His father was a printer’s clerk and in 1901, when Hubert was 3 years old, the family lived at 24 Florence Road, South Wimbledon. He had a sister, Constance Maude Grant, who was three years older than him. By 1911 the family had moved to 68, Adela Avenue, West Barnes.
Hubert attended Rutlish School from 1910 to 1915 and was a member of the Wimbledon Juniors Football Club. After leaving school he became a clerk with the Inland Revenue. He tried to enlist in 1916 but a Rutlish School memoir records that the army initially turned him down for medical reasons.
He was eventually passed as A2 and on April 2nd 1917, at the age of 19, he enlisted with the 4th battalion of the East Surrey Regiment, a training battalion. On June 20th 1917 he was posted to the 9th Battalion, which had been sent to relieve 2 other battalions in captured German trenches 2 miles SW of Ypres. The battalion moved up to the front line on 3rd August and Hubert was killed on 7th August, just before it moved out of the front line.
No records of the circumstances of Private Grant’s death exist. His body was not identified and he is remembered on the Menin Gate memorial at Ypres. The Menin Gate is one of four memorials to those missing in Belgian Flanders which covers the area known as the Ypres Salient. The memorial now bears the names of over 54,000 officers and men whose graves are not known.
There is also a memorial to Private Grant at Rutlish School