Biography:

2ND LIEUT. ALAN VICTOR HOBBS, ROYAL SUSSEX REGT., FLYING OFFICER, 3RD SQUADRON, R.F.C. KILLED ON AERIAL RECONNAISSANCE OVER VALENCIENNES, DECEMBER 15TH, 1915. AGED 21. At the School 1909—13 (Day Boy). 2nd Lieut. A. V. Hobbs was the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Ernest Hobbs, of 20, St. John's Road, Tunbridge Wells. His younger brother, Bernard Francis Hobbs, enlisted in the London Scottish, and going out to France in October, 1915, took part in Battles of the Somme, including fierce fighting in the Gommecourt Salient on July 1st, 1916, and later at Foncquevillers, and was killed in action as a Lance-Corporal in the neighbourhood of Guillemont in the Battle of Morval on September 25th, 1916. Another brother, L. J. Hobbs, entered the School in September, 1922. Alan Victor Hobbs entered the School in September, 1909, having in that year been awarded a scholarship from the Skinners' School, Tunbridge Wells, at which he had held Junior and Senior Foundation Scholarships. During his last year he became a House Praepostor, and also a Lance-Corporal in the O.T.C. Always a keen member of the O.T.C., he attended camp six times, twice whilst at the Skinners' School and each year whilst here. He left in 1913 from the Lower Sixth, having gained a Scholarship for Mathematics at St. John's College, Cambridge. At the Midsummer Examination, 1913, he gained the English Essay Prize and the Smythe Leaving Exhibition of £30 for Mathematics. He was also awarded a Kent County Higher Scholarship. When war broke out he had just completed his first year at Cambridge, and had passed the first part of the Mathematical Tripos and been awarded a Hoare Exhibition by his College. He promised to become prominent in debate at the Cambridge Union. He at once applied for a commission, and, whilst waiting for it, joined the ranks of the Special Reserve Battn. of the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regt. On October 23rd, 1914, he was gazetted Temporary 2nd Lieut, in the 10th Battn. of the Royal Sussex Regt., and, applying for appointment to the Royal Flying Corps, was seconded and sent at the end of January, 1915, to Shoreham and then to Gosport for training in aviation. He proved himself exceptionally well suited for flying work, was gazetted a Flying Officer May 26th, and went out to France as a Pilot in July. He was in No. 8 Squadron when W. S. Douglas and G. Alchin joined it, but was later transferred to No. 3 Squadron. After serving with marked success at the Front he was eventually shot down on December 15th, just a week after attaining his 21st birthday. He and his Observer, Lieut. Tudor Jones, were at first reported as missing, but in a letter dated January 13th his Squadron Commander wrote to Mr. Hobbs as follows:— " I deeply regret to inform you that I have just received further information about your son, 2nd Lieut. A. V. Hobbs, and the observer with him, who were reported missing on December l0th, 1915, which points indubitably to the conclusion that they were both killed. They were shot down by a hostile aeroplane while doing a reconnaissance over the German lines. That the Germans appreciated their bravery and noble self-sacrifice little less than we, who knew them both, do, is shown by the honours they accorded them at their funeral. The message states that the whole garrison of the town in which their machine fell attended the funeral, and that both officers were buried with full military honours. The German Flying Corps sent a few wreaths, which they laid on the graves." A brother officer tells of his last fight and of their experience on the previous day:— " On December 14th," he says, " Alan and I went up to take some photos of a place four miles or so behind La Bassee and a very warm corner it proved. 'Archie' (the anti-aircraft gun) did some remarkably good shooting, and shot away one wing and scored sixteen other hits. However, we took those photos and came back quite pleased with ourselves. As Alan's machine had been so badly strafed, he had to take another one up on reconnaissance the next day. The farthest point he had to reach was Valenciennes and then return direct to the aerodrome. The weather was not nice, for there was a good deal of wind and the day was dull and cloudy. . . . It was the first time that particular reconnaissance had been done. . . . On the first fine day the reconnaissance was done again with two machines as escort; they returned and said that the wreckage of Alan's machine was seen lying on the house-tops at Valenciennes." The following from the German Main Headquarters Communique of December 16th referred to the fight in which Alan Hohbs lost his life :— "Lieut. Immelmann yesterday caused his seventh enemy aeroplane, an English monoplane, to fall down over Valenciennes after an aerial battle." Also in a German paper dropped in our lines by a German aviator there was an account of the fight, given by a man close to whose house the machine fell. He had never, he said, seen a pluckier fight than that made by the two young English officers.


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Alan Victor Hobbs entered the School in September, 1909, having in that year been awarded a scholarship from the Skinners' School, Tunbridge Wells, at which he had held Junior and Senior Foundation Scholarships. During his last year he became a House Praepostor, and also a Lance-Corporal in the O.T.C. Always a keen member of the O.T.C., he attended camp six times, twice whilst at the Skinners' School and each year whilst here. He left in 1913 from the Lower Sixth, having gained a Scholarship for Mathematics at St. John's College, Cambridge. At the Midsummer Examination, 1913, he gained the English Essay Prize and the Smythe Leaving Exhibition of £30 for Mathematics. He was also awarded a Kent County Higher Scholarship.