Name: Gwillym Hoskins
Died: 06/03/1918 aged 46 years – however from earlier census records he appears to have been born in late 1870 so actually 47 at death
Rank: Staff Sergeant
Regiment: Royal Army Medical Corps (321st East Anglian Field Ambulance)
Service No: 120019
Son of Herbert Henry and Mary Ann Hoskins. Born at 14 River Row, Blaina in 1870. His father was a cinder filler. [1871 census]
Gwillym married Beatrice Bessie Rose (who was born in Salisbury, Wilts) at Cardiff in 1894. They had 8 children together although 2 had died up to 1911.
On the 1901 census, Gwillym was employed as an iron pipe and engine fitter. The family lived at 5 Pretoria Terrace, Ebbw Vale although all 3 children up to that point had been born in Cardiff so they cannot have moved here before 1899. By the time of the 1911 census, the family had moved to 13 Woodland Terrace, Waunlwyd, Ebbw Vale and comprised 5 daughters and one son.
In 1905, Gwillym had volunteered in the territoriala but in 1908 had enlisted in the 1st Welsh Field Ambulance. He progressed to the rank of sergeant and was mobilised at the outbreak of war in 1914. By this time Gwillym was 44 years of age and it’s unclear from his records whether or not he served abroad in an active theatre of war. In 1915 he was promoted to the rank of Staff Sergeant and later transferred to the 321st East Anglian Field Ambulance section. In February 1918, he contracted pneumonia and sadly less than a month later he died at hospital in Lowestoft. He wife was informed of his illness and was with Gwillym when he died although he became delirious at the end of his illness as the pneumonia progressed. His body was returned to Ebbw Vale for burial.
Buried at Ebbw Vale Cemetery; one of 4 individuals who lie in unmarked graves; commemorative headstone has been placed near the lodge entrance and a memorial tablet placed alongside which states that these individuals lie buried elsewhere in this cemetery.
Location of burial: D, East border. 2. 28. [Unmarked grave]
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