Lieutenant John Lambert HOPGOOD
B Company, 8th (Service) Battalion Queens (Royal West Surrey) Regiment

Date of birth: 16th May 1895
Date of death: 17th August 1916

Died of wounds aged 21
Buried at La Neuville British Cemetery, Corbie Plot I Row F Grave 58
John Lambert Hopgood was born at 17 De Vere Gardens, Kensington on the 16th of May 1895 the son of Captain John Edgar Hopgood, Essex Regiment, and Ethel (nee Dobson) Hopgood of 187, Queen’s Gate, London SW7.

He was educated at Hazelwood School until December 1908. On leaving the school the magazine wrote the following of him: - "...forms one of the quintet bound for Wellington, and we shall miss him very much. Although no great athlete himself, he was always jealous of the honour of Hazelwood, and very keen to see it worthily upheld. One of the most charming members of the community whose sunny nature spread to and influenced everybody coming within its radius."

He went on to Wellington College where he was in Mr. Brougham's House from January 1909 until 1914. He was a member of the Officer Training Corps. He was admitted as a pensioner to Trinity College Cambridge on the 1st of October 1914 but did not take up his place there.

Instead he enlisted at 24 St James Street, London as Private 172 in the 16th (Service) Battalion Middlesex Regiment (Public Schools) on the 7th of September 1914. At a medical examination, which took place on the same day, it was recorded that he was five feet nine and a half inches tall and that he weighed 133lbs. It was also noted that he had a light complexion, brown eyes and dark hair.
He applied for a commission in the 8th Battalion Queen’s (Royal West Surrey) Regiment on the 22nd of September 1914, in an application which was supported by Mr. W.W. Vaughan, Master of Wellington College, and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the battalion on the 19th of November 1914.

He embarked for France on the 10th of October 1915 and joined his battalion in the field at Reninghelst in Belgium, along with three other officers, on the 13th of October. From the 31st of January to the 3rd of May 1916 he was seconded to 42nd Brigade as an Intelligence Officer. On the night of the 13th of June 1916 the battalion relieved the 8th Battalion Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) in trenches near Fampoux with the relief being completed by 11pm. The next four days passed "quietly" with only light shelling but with machine guns being very active along the front. Between 12.20am and 1.45am on the morning of the 17th of June the enemy made a gas attack against the Brigade front which fell heavily against B Company who were in the reserve trenches. During the attack the battalion lost three officer and seventy eight other ranks and due to the casualties suffered during the attack John Hopgood was placed in command of B Company.

On the 10th of August 1916, the 8th Battalion Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment relieved the 1/5th Battalion King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment in front line trenches in front of Talus Boisee, near Maricourt on the Somme. The relief was completed at 1am the next morning with eighty men from B Company positioned in the support line. On the 12th of August the battalion came under heavy shelling for most of the day. On the 13th of August 1916 John Hopgood was mortally wounded and was evacuated to 21 Casualty Clearing Station where he died of his wounds four days later. The battalion was relieved at 10pm that day by the 9th Battalion East Surrey Regiment having suffered eighty six casualties during its tour of the front line.

His father received the following telegram dated the 19th of August 1916: -

"Deeply regret to inform you that report from bases states 2/Lt J.L. Hopgood 8 West Surrey Regt. died Aug 17. The Army Council express their sympathy."

He is commemorated on the war memorial at Trinity College Cambridge and on the memorial at Wellington College.

Went on to Wellington College

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