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Major Hugh Evelyn Jackson LISTER (102124) MC
Support Company, 1st (Infantry) Battalion Welsh Guards Date of birth: 15th May 1901 Date of death: 9th September 1944 Killed in action aged 43 Buried at Leopoldsburg War Cemetery Plot IV Row A Grave 10
Hugh Evelyn Jackson Lister was born at 30 Fountain Hill Road, Aberdeen on the 15th of May 1901 the only son of Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Hugh Lister MD CMG, Royal Army Medical Corps, and of Sybil (nee Palgrave) Lister later of The Old Rectory, Purley, Reading in Berkshire He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School from 1910 to 1916 and at Lancing College where he was in Sandersons House from September 1916 to July 1919. He went on to Trinity College Cambridge the same year where he was admitted as a pensioner on the 1st of October 1919 and achieved a BA third class Mechanical Sciences Tripos in 1922. While at Cambridge he was a member of the Leander Club. On leaving university in 1923 he went to work as an engineer for the Great Western Railways until 1927, working in Cardiff, Swindon and London. While he was at Swindon he spent some time living in the workmen's dormitories where he gained great empathy with the working men he met there. He left this work and instead went to Cuddesdon Theological College in 1928 taking holy orders there in 1929. On leaving college he became curate of All Saint’s Church Poplar from 1929 to 1931. In 1931 he resigned his position as curate to become London Secretary of the Student Christian Movement. During this period he was living on unemployment benefit which proved ruinous to his health and he contracted tuberculosis. He was sent for treatment to a clinic in Switzerland in 1932 where he acted as Chaplain to his fellow patients. In 1934 he returned and became senior curate at St Mary of Eton, the Eton College Mission at Hackney Wick, serving there for three years. While he was there he served as chairman of the Hackney branch of the Transport and General Workers Union and organised a series of strikes in the East End in the late 1930s across a range of industries. He was outspoken in his opposition to the fascist movement which was growing in the East End and was a supporter of military conscription which was introduced in March 1939. He attended the Royal Military College Sandhurst from where he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Welsh Guards as a combatant officer on the 2nd of October 1939. He served in the Battle of France in May and June 1940. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 1st of April 1941 and to temporary Captain on the 11th of December 1941. He was promoted to Captain on the 21st of January 1943. The 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards landed in Normandy in groups between the 18th and the 29th of June 1944. He was promoted to Acting Major on the 1st of July 1944 and was placed in command of the Support Company the following day. On the 12th of August 1944 the Welsh Guards were at Le Haut Perrier in the Normandy bocage country. During the day Lister was ordered to set up a protective screen of Bren Gun carriers and anti tank guns to protect the battalion's command post. Despite being under heavy enemy artillery fire he managed to complete this mission but with many casualties among his men. He was then despatched by his Commanding Officer to assist another Company who were in difficulties. He reorganised the Company under heavy fire and managed to move them forward to take their objective. Later that day he was sent to clear a road which had been blocked causing two companies resupply difficulties. He managed to clear the road and move anti tank guns down them in support of the two companies and enabled casualties to be evacuated. After the action his Commanding Officer wrote:- "He was a great source of strength to me." For his actions that day Hugh Lister was awarded the Military Cross which was announced by the War Office on the 1st of March 1945. The recommendation for the award read: - "At Le Bas Ferrier on 12 Aug 44 this officer was in command of SP Coy 1 WG. he was ordered to form a firm base with carriers and anti tank guns, to protect command post and from which the attack could be launched, and to remain in this area. At zero hour this firm base was subjected to a heavy concentration of artillery fire which caused casualties. Major Lister, regardless of shelling and personal risk organised the evacuation of casualties and reorganised the firm base. Later one of the Rifle Coys was in difficulties and owing to the Commanding Officer being unable to leave the command post, Major Lister was sent to find out what was happening though this was quite outside his ordinary duties. He assisted in re-organising the coy under heavy fire and getting it onto its objective. Later again it became necessary to “bulldoze” a road down to two of the coys, as they advanced, in order that anti tank guns could be brought up for consolidation and also to assist in evacuating casualties through the thick country. This was entirely organised by this officer and proved invaluable as the day went on. When the time for consolidation came the entire anti tank layout was done by this officer and also again the day later when adjustments of posts were made, including the “bulldozing” of another road. His disregard for himself and tireless energy was beyond praise.” On the 3rd of September 1944 the Welsh Guards reached and liberated Brussels. On the 6th of September the advance across Belgium was resumed and on the 7th they were in the village of Helchteren where they stopped for the night. As they pushed forward the next morning towards the neighbouring village of Hechtel they were subjected to a counterattack which was beaten off with heavy casualties inflicted on the Germans. On the 8th they probed forward towards Hechtel and by evening they had a foothold in the north-eastern corner of the village. During the night attempts were made by the enemy to infiltrate these positions but without success. On the 9th of September No. 3 Company was attempting to take a German held house in the western part of the village which was holding up their advance. Hugh Lister and Lieutenant John Arnold Alexander Henderson of the Support Company came forward to assist in the battle for the building. Lister had wanted to make sure the way was clear for his men but both men were killed by German machine gun fire. The Welsh Guards war diary recorded the following that night:- "His personality and example had been an inspiration to the battalion. He will be irreplaceable because he was unique. All who served with him will always remember him as a man who was truly great." The regimental history adds:- "He was a priest of the Church of England, who thought it his duty to join with other men in fighting the evil of Nazidom and to share the dangers and sufferings this would involve." Lieutenant Richard Mosse, who commanded the anti tank platoon in the Support Company, wrote:- "He was always quiet and peaceful no matter how wild the action around him. The only time I ever saw him rattled was if any of his boys strayed into danger. You knew he had thought everything through and if he asked you to do something, it was the right thing to do. As a result everybody adored him and would simply do whatever he asked. Hugh was slightly unworldly and we trusted him completely. He was also a very unchurchy man . All the young officers would gather in his bivouac and drink calvados and just chat. He was very good company." Lieutenant (later General) Peter Leuchars wrote:- "He was totally unlike the picture you might have of a Guards officer-totally unlike. He was much more like somebody who had risen from the rank of Guardsman rather than an officer who had come in from Sandhurst. A very caring person, he'd take a great deal of trouble of going to base hospitals or forward casualty collecting stations . You know you meet a lot of people in life who you just forget. You would never forget about him." A fellow officer wrote:- “Every one who met Hugh Lister must have felt immediately that they were in contact with an outstanding personality. Enthusiasm is infectious; combine that with intelligence, drive, complete simplicity, and honesty and infinite kindness to great and small and you have a very inadequate picture of him. I never served on active operations with Hugh, but I heard of his outstanding courage in France in 1940 and, recently one of the officers of his battalion, home wounded, told me of his utter disregard of personal safety. In April this year (1944) I had the good fortune to travel with him to the United States on a mission. It was essential that he went as he had been the guiding inspiration of the project in hand. He had one worry—that he would not be back in time to accompany his battalion in the invasion. His personality, drive and long hours of work completed our task successfully in record time and so he was home well before D-Day. The impression he made on those he met during his very short stay in New York, Washington and Detroit was dynamic. His visit to the statue in Washington of his great hero, Abraham Lincoln, afforded him infinite pleasure. Of his pre war activities among his people in the East End whom he loved so much I know, I regret to say, little, but this I do know, that we, in the Brigade of Guards, who knew him for relatively such a short period, mourn the loss of this very splendid person as they do.” He is commemorated on the war memorial in the chapel at Trinity College Cambridge and on the memorials at Aberdeen Grammar School and at the Royal Military College Sandhurst. His father died at sea on the 17th of July 1916 while returning home from Egypt.

Sandersons House