Current Information:

Age-24

510, High Road, Streatham

Coxyde Military Cemetery, Belgium

Operation Hush was a British plan for amphibious landings on the Belgian coast in the summer and autumn ofg 1917 in conjunction with the Third Battle of Ypres that began on 31st July, that year. The landings would be supported by attacks from Nieuwpoort and the Yser bridgehead and a number of units were sent there with this purpose in mind. However the plan was cancelled in October, 1917 after the failure of the British to break out of the Ypres salient.

The exact circumstances of the death of Edward Hull on 26th August, 1917 are not known but artillery men faced many dangers and during the course of the war nearly 50,000 of them were killed. Their gun batteries were targeted by the enemy’s guns which accounted for many of their casualties. Others were sent forward to act as ‘spotters’ which meant going forward to the front line and signalling back to the guns necessary changes in target and other vital information. Keeping the batteries supplied with ammunition was a dangerous task as the enemy guns would target the known supply routes, especially at night. Brigade Diaries rarely shine any light on casualties sustained, unless of course they were officers and even then information is sparse. 

39 Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery went to France at the beginning of the war as part of 1st Division and spent the rest of the war on the Western Front. In the suimmer of 1917 the division was involved in Operation Hush.