| Regiment/Service: |
1st Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (British Army) |
| Died: |
01/07/1916 (Killed in Action) |
| Age: |
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John Hughes was a son of James Hughes. He was born in Magherafelt. John lived in Belfast. He enlisted in Cookstown on 7th July 1914. It is believed Private Hughes served with both the 1st and 3rd Battalions of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. After the usual period of training he was sent to the Dardanelles with his battalion, and took part in that fierce conflict, being twice wounded, his brigade being highly complimented by the general commanding on the gallantry displayed. Private Hughes contracted dysentery during the Dardanelles campaign. On being discharged from hospital, Private Hughes and his battalion was sent to France. Private John Hughes was serving with the 1st Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers when he was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on Saturday 1st July 1916.
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The village of Beaumont-Hamel was attacked on 1 July 1916 by the 29th Division, with the 4th on its left and the 36th (Ulster) on its right, but without success. On 3 September a further attack was delivered between Hamel and Beaumont-Hamel and on 13 and 14 November, the 51st (Highland), 63rd (Royal Naval), 39th and 19th (Western) Divisions finally succeeded in capturing Beaumont-Hamel, Beaucourt-sur-Ancre and St. Pierre-Divion. Following the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line in the spring of 1917, V Corps cleared this battlefield and created a number of cemeteries, of which Ancre British Cemetery (then called Ancre River No.1 British Cemetery, V Corps Cemetery No.26) was one. There were originally 517 burials almost all of the 63rd (Naval) and 36th Divisions, but after the Armistice the cemetery was greatly enlarged when many more graves from the same battlefields and from the following smaller burial grounds.
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