Served under the surname Power.
Rifleman 1631, 9th Battalion London Regiment (Queen’s Victoria Rifles).
Died of wounds on Friday 26th March 1915 at Ypres, age 28.
Buried in Ramparts Cemetery, Ypres, Belgium, grave ref. F12.
Former student of Electrical Engineering.
Hugh was the only son of Richard and Annie Ching of Tooting. He was born in London on 25 January 1887 and educated at Stockwell Board School. In 1906-07 as an apprentice with British Westinghouse, Trafford Park, he enrolled on Electrical Engineering courses at the Manchester Municipal School of Technology. He married Pollie, 4th Daughter of James Henry Pindey, on 2nd May 1914.
Hugh joined the Queen’s Victoria Rifles, a territorial unit, in 1912, volunteered for foreign service in August 1914 and left for France in October 1914. He died in hospital in Ypres of wounds received on 24th March 1915. Writing to Hugh’s wife his Captain commented: “All who knew your husband appreciated him very much, he was in every way a good soldier, no higher praise can be given to a man”. 2nd Lieutenant K. Lloyd wrote recalled him to be one of the staunch ones and said: “Ever since that first night when he took out a listening patrol, he has been a great rock of comfort to me. It is just the men like him that give such a feeling of confidence to us when we feel a touch of downheartnedness. I am glad to say I was able to go back to him for a moment after he had been hit and the last I heard of him he was calling “Good Luck” to his friends as they filed past him along the path.” His wife (under the surname Fleming) had the words “He said farewell, we did not think it was forever” inscribed on his headstone.