I find it difficult not to develop close connections with some of the people who appear in my historical research. One such character is 2nd Lieutenant John R.W. Hobson (1914-1940), Royal Army Service Corps, Expeditionary Forces Institute (E.F.I.) and the accountant for ENSA in France 1940. He came to my attention through Virginia Vernon, who shared an office with him for a few months and writes beautifully about this sensitive and intelligent young man in her diary. His name is a single line in the R.A.S.C. E.F.I. war diary but his story is so much richer. Unfortunately I have no photo of him, but I’d like to share what I know of his story. If any of his relatives happen to read this blog post, I would love to know more about him and his family after the war.
John Hobson was a chartered accountant by trade and he had finished serving his articles in Leamington Spa at Messrs Burgis and Bullock in 1939. He was just starting what promised to be a successful career with an appointment as a chartered accountant with Ramsgate Olympia Ltd in Kent when the Second World War started. Hobson had spent his childhood in Kent attending the oldest public school in Britain, King’s School, Canterbury. At this prestigious school he excelled academically and was selected to wear a black gown in his final year in recognition of his position as a Senior Kings Scholar. He was a keen musician and during the 1930s, Hobson joined the Dramatic Study Club who met regularly in Bedford Street, Leamington Spa to read and perform plays.[1] Perhaps this is why he was keen to work with ENSA and explains why he got on so well with the translator of Noel Coward’s plays, Virginia Vernon, whilst out in France. Another keen amateur dramatics member of the club was Phyllis Lewis, a secretary and short-hand typist, and a relationship soon blossomed with Hobson. They married in April 1939 and moved to Ramsgate, Kent to start their life together shortly before war broke out.[2]
After joining up with the Royal Army Service Corps at the outbreak of war, 2nd Lieutenant Hobson arrived at the forward area of the British Expeditionary Force in Arras on 28 January 1940. Vernon describes their first meeting in the E.F.I. H.Q.:
‘A lovely bloke, tall and fair, blue eyed and young and sweet. He is just married and adores his wife. He was a chartered accountant in civilian life and he applied to the NAAFI for a job with them in order to get out of real fighting. He did it to please his wife who is pregnant - they didn’t waste any time.’
He soon fell into the routine of bringing financial order to the chaos of ENSA’s live and cinema entertainments. Vernon noticed on more than one occasion how this blue-eyed boy would work tirelessly at all hours and went above and beyond to get the job done and to ensure that hotel owners got paid on time, entry fees were correctly collected to performances, and the staff got their salaries. On their first wedding anniversary, Phyllis was expecting their first child at home in Kent and Hobson had just been collecting box-office receipts at a Gracie Fields show in Roubaix. Like so many people, the war had pushed ordinary people into extraordinary situations.
Chaos was never far away and on 10th May 1940 the Germans invaded the Low Countries, bringing the ‘phoney’ war to an end. Whilst the rest of the E.F.I. staff and ENSA performers evacuated south to Rouen (see previous blog post), Hobson stayed to finalise the payments to hotel proprietors in Arras and the surrounding area. A week later, Arras would become cut off and the front line of a desperate counterattack by the British but during the night of the 14th / 15th May, the city was bombed by the Germans. The 26 year old Hobson died when a bomb hit the Hotel L’Univers as he slept. There is footage of the aftermath of the aerial attack on Arras taken on the 15th May 1940 in the Imperial War Museum archive here:
Image: Still from film IWM www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060032996
Virginia Vernon was devastated on hearing the news of Hobson’s death and described him as ‘a lovely human being’. She was told that when he was dug out of the rubble, it was as if he were sleeping peacefully and had a photograph of his wife pressed to his cheek. Whether this idyllic image is true or not, this angelic image of innocence stayed with Vernon through the rest of her life. John R.W. Hobson was buried in Avesnes-Le-Comte Communal Cemetery and his grave is inscribed with words from Song of Solomon 2:17 and 4:6, ‘Until the day break, and the shadows flee away.’[3] It’s heartbreaking to think of his wife and their unborn child in their new home in Ramsgate waiting for news of this bright young man with a whole life in front of him. He was of course one of many with similar tragic stories during the war.
Image: Avesnes-Le-Comte Communal Cemetery Extension from Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.
Yesterday I visited the National Archives to look at the R.A.S.C. E.F.I. war diary of the first half of 1940. Knowing some of the history of Hobson, I was hoping to find out more about him from the British Army records; perhaps just a scrap of additional information. Looking through the field returns and nominal rolls of officers on strength I could find nothing until the last but one page. Here on the field return from 4 May 1940, a single line read 2/Lieut Hobson, J.R.W.
Image: from TNA WO 167-46 General Headquarters (GHQ) Entertainments
Hobson was one of 500 R.A.S.C. E.F.I. men serving in the forward areas of that week. Thankfully war diaries are not the only historical sources we can draw upon!
[2] Marriage announcement in Leamington Spa Courier, 28 Apr 1939