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2^nd Lieutenant
HUGH CARR
Royal Engineers 

by 

Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Edward De Santis, MSCE, BSAE, P.E., MinstRE
(October 2025)

Figure 1. 2^nd Lieutenant Hugh Carr, R.E.
(Image courtesy of the Imperial War Museum) 

1.  INTRODUCTION 

            Hugh Carr enlisted in the Household Cavalry in 1914.  He had worked as a coal miner prior to the war and as such was a prime candidate for service in a tunnelling company of the Royal Engineers.  To meet the needs of the newly forming tunnelling units he was transferred out of the Life Guards, commissioned, and sent to the 172^nd Tunnelling Company, where he would survive for only 91 days at the front. 

2.  FAMILY INFORMATION AND EARLY LIFE

Family Information

Hugh Carr was born on 13 July 1891 on Sunderland Street in Houghton Le Spring, County Durham.  He was the son of Thomas Carr (1858-1930), a Master Draper, and Mary Ann Carr, née Davidson (1860-1946).[1] The 1901 Census of England shows the Carr family living in the Fences Houses at Chilton Moor in Houghton Le Spring, as shown in the table below. 

 1901 Census of England 

NOTE: Walter and Henry were twins, born on 21 February 1894.[3] 

Early Life

            During this research no information could be found regarding young Hugh’s education, however in 1905 at the age of 14, he began an Apprenticeship with Lambton and Hetton Colliers, Ltd.

Figure 4.  Hugh Carr, ca. 1901.
(Image courtesy of Ancestry.com) 

            In 1911, while living with his parents in one of the Fences Houses at Chilton Moor, Houghton Le Spring, he was working as an Apprentice Miner at the company’s 6^th Pit in Lumley, about 2 miles from his home. 

1911 Census of England 

 3.  ENLISTMENT AND TRAINING 

Enlistment 

            Having had his fill of working in an open-pit coal mine, and desiring to serve King and Country in the Great War, Hugh Carr enlisted in the 1^st Life Guards, Household Cavalry at York on 20 October 1914.  His Short Service Attestation form indicates that he was 23 years and 3 months old when he enlisted and that his civil occupation was Mining Engineer.[6]  He indicated that the had been an Apprentice for Lambton and Hetton Colliers Ltd for seven years and that he was not married.  Carr indicated that he had never been sentenced for a crime by Civil Power, that he had no prior naval or military service and had never been rejected as unfit for service.  He indicated that he was willing to be vaccinated or re-vaccinated, was willing to enlist for General Service and was willing to serve for three years unless the war lasted longer.  Upon completing the formalities of his enlistment Carr was appointed a Trooper in the 1^st Life Guards, regimental number 3244. 

Training 

            Trooper Carr was sent to the Household Cavalry training establishment following his enlistment where he was trained in basic military subjects, cavalry tactics and certainly horsemanship.  No mention could be found in documents relating to this early life to indicate that he was an accomplished horseman, so it must be assumed that he received this training in the early days of his enlistment.

4.  POSTINGS, COMMISSIONING AND CAMPAIGN SERVICE

            Hugh Carr was posted to France on 19 April 1915[7] to serve in the 1^st Life Guards with the 7^th Cavalry Brigade in the 3^rd Cavalry Division in the Cavalry Corps of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).  Three days after his arrival in France his unit was engaged in the Second Battle of Ypres (22 April – 25 May 1915). 

            Following the action at Ypres the 1^st Life Guards experienced a 4-month lull in the fighting.  The unit was next involved in the Battle of Loos, which began on 25 September.  During the period 26 – 28 September the 3^rd Cavalry Division was placed in general reserve.  It was then allotted to the First Army as the Army’s cavalry division and was moved to the Bois des Dames area while the rest of the Cavalry Corps was concentrated around Therouanne.  During the Battle of Loos, on 7 October 1915, Trooper Carr was discharged from the ranks and commissioned a 2^nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 8 October.[8]  

Carr’s commissioning in the Royal Engineers was the result of a decision made in February 1915 to form eight Tunnelling Companies, made up of men drawn from the ranks, mixed with drafts of men specially recruited for this kind of work.  Carr was obviously chosen for service in a tunnelling company since he had a number of years of experience as a coal miner.  The rapid formation of these tunnelling companies was the quickest intentional act in the war: men who were working underground as civilians in the UK on 17 February were underground at Givenchy only four days later, such was the urgency of needing countermeasures against the aggressive German actions. Another twelve Companies were eventually formed in 1915, and one further one in 1916. A Canadian Tunnelling Company was formed in France and two more arrived from home, by March 1916. Three Australian and one New Zealand Tunnelling Companies arrived on the Western Front by May 1916. All of these units were engaged on underground work including the digging of subways, cable trenches, saps, chambers (for such things as signals and medical services), as well as offensive or defensive mining. A Mine Rescue School was formed in Armentieres in 1915.[9] 

Immediately following his commissioning, Carr was posted to the 172^nd Tunnelling Company, one of the first of such companies to be formed.  He joined the unit on 23 October 1915.[10]  The company was commanded by Captain William Henry Johnston, R.E., V.C.  The company included a significant number of miners from South Wales.  From its formation in April 1915 until the end of the war the company served under First Army south of the Ypres Salient. 

In the autumn of 1915, probably while Carr was present in the unit, the 172nd Tunnelling Company working in the area of The Bluff at St Eloi managed to sink shafts through the sandy clay to a depth of 23 feet down to dry blue clay at a depth of 43 feet, a depth which was ideal for a military tunnel. From that depth they continued to drive galleries towards the German lines at a depth of 60 feet. This constituted a major achievement in mining technique and gave the Royal Engineers a significant advantage over their German counterparts. 

Figure 7. Captain William Henry Johnston, R.E., V.C.
(Image courtesy of Wikipedia) 

            When one thinks of the work done by tunnellers one thinks of men dying underground from suffocation due to cave ins or enemy counter-mining attacks.  However, this was not to be the case on 19 December 1915 when the 172^nd Tunnelling Company suffered its worst day in the war.  On that day eight men were killed in action above ground, in a trench, by a heavy German artillery bombardment.  The Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the company war diary list these men as follows: 

┼ 136442 Sapper Thomas Clark

┼ 136427 Sapper G. Collins

┼ 136385 Sapper Fred Cooper

┼ 136391 Sapper William Henry Crooks

┼ 144874 Sapper Elijah Davies

┼ 136489 Sapper Andrew Dunshire

┼ 136200 Sapper John Halliday

┼ 136395 Sapper John Daybell French

            On 31 December 1915 the company lost two more men:

┼ Lieutenant William Hawthorn, R.E.

┼ 112795 Sapper S. Graves 

136460 Sapper Robert Sneddon was killed on 16 January 1916 and on 21 January 2^nd Lieutenant Carr was severely wounded by a shell fragment while in a front line trench in the St. Eloi area.  He was evacuated to No. 10 Casualty Clearing Station at Remy Siding where he died on 23 January.[11]  While Carr was in hospital, the company lost another man, 112730 Sapper Benjamin Brenkley, who was killed on 22 January. 

Figure 8.  The Field Grave of 2^nd Lieutenant Hugh Carr, R.E.
(Image courtesy of Ancestry.com) 

            Hugh Carr was finally laid to rest in the Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Plot II, Row A, Grave 28.  During the war, the village of Lijssenthoek was situated on the main communication line between the Allied military bases in the rear and the Ypres battlefields. Close to the Front, but out of the extreme range of most German field artillery, it became a natural place to establish casualty clearing stations. The cemetery was first used by the French 15th Hopital D'Evacuation and in June 1915, it began to be used by casualty clearing stations of the Commonwealth forces.[12]

5. MEDALS, AWARDS AND DECORATIONS

            For his service during the war Hugh Carr was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.  The 1914-15 Star was awarded to him as a Trooper in the Life Guards and the other two medals as a 2^nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers. 

Figure 9.  The 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
(Image from the author’s collection) 

NOTE:  The medals in Figure 9 are not those of 2^nd Lieutenant Hugh Carr.  The image is posted here for illustrative purposed only. 

Figure 10. The Great War Medal Index Card of 2^nd Lieutenant Hugh Carr, R.E.
(Image courtesy of Ancestry.com)

Captain
WALTER FREDERICK CARR
Royal Engineers 

Figure 11.  Captain Walter Frederick Carr, R.E.
(Image courtesy of Ancestry.com)

            William Frederick Carr was born on 21 February 1894 at Sunderland Street in St. Houghton Le Spring, Durham.  He and his twin brother, Henry Wilfrid Carr, were the younger brothers of Hugh Carr.  As a young man, Walter worked as an engineering apprentice at the Lambton Engineering Works in Durham.  In about 1914 he enlisted in the Yorkshire (Alexandra, Princess of Wales Own) Hussars as a Trooper, regimental number 330442.[13]  He subsequently was commissioned in the Royal Engineers and rose to the rank of Captain.  He was posted to France on 3 November 1916 and was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal for his service there.

Figure 12.  The Great War Medal Index Card of Captain Walter Frederick Carr, R.E.
(Image courtesy of Ancestry.com)

24114 Lance Corporal
HENRY WILFRID CARR
13^th Battalion, C.E.F.

Figure 13.  Lance Corporal Henry Wilfrid Carr, 13^th Battalion, CEF.
(Image courtesy of Ancestry.com)

            Henry Wilfrid Carr was born on 21 February 1894 at Sunderland Street in St. Houghton Le Spring, Durham.  He and his twin brother, Walter Frederick Carr, were the younger brothers of Hugh Carr.  As a young man, Henry worked as an Engineering Apprentice for the Lambton Engineering Works in Durham.  He emigrated to Canada some time before the start of the Great War and on 24 September 1914 he enlisted in the 13^th Battalion (Royal Highlanders of Canada) in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF).

            The 13th battalion was organized in Camp Valcartier and composed of recruits from Montreal, Quebec, with a strength of 45 officers and 1,110 other ranks. The battalion embarked from Quebec on 25 September 1914, on the troop ship Alaunia, and disembarked in the UK on 16 October, and arrived in France on 16 February 1915.  The battalion formed part of the Canadian 3^rd Infantry Brigade in the 1^st Canadian Contingent of the CEF.  The battalion took part in the following major actions of the war:

• Ypres, 1915 and 1917

• Gravenstafel

• St. Julien

• Festubert, 1915

• Mount Sorrel

• Somme, 1916

• Pozières

• Thiepval

• Ancre Heights

• Arras, 1917 and 1918

• Vimy, 1917

• Arleux

• Scarpe, 1917 and 1918

• Hill 70

• Passchendaele

• Amiens

• Drocourt–Quéant

• Hindenburg Line

• Canal du Nord

• Pursuit to Mons

• France and Flanders, 1915–1918

Lance Corporal Carr was wounded by an “exploding bullet” at Ypres on 23 April 1915, but he survived the war.[14]  For his service he was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.

REFERENCES:

Census 

1.      1901 Census of England.

2.      1911 Census of England and Wales.

Civil Documents 

1.      Birth Certificate.

2.      Commonwealth War Graves Commission Memorial.

3.      U.K. Probate Calendar, 1916, p. 400.

Family Tree 

Ancestry.com: Hugh Carr. 

Internet Web Sites 

1.      The Long, Long Trail: The 1^st and 2^nd Life Guards.

https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/cavalry-regiments/the-1st-and-2nd-life-guards/

2.      Wikipedia: Battle of Loos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Loos

3.      Wikipedia: The Second Battle of Ypres.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Ypres

4.      The Long, Long Trail: Tunnelling Companies of the Royal Engineers.

https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-corps-of-royal-engineers-in-the-first-world-war/tunnelling-companies-of-the-royal-engineers-underground-warfare/

5.      Wikipedia: 172^nd Tunnelling Company.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/172nd_Tunnelling_Company

London Gazette 

Supplement to the London Gazette, 8 November 1915, p. 11032. 

Military Documents 

1.      Short Service Attestation.

2.      Medal Index Card.

3.      War Diary, 172^nd Tunnelling Company.

4.      Receipt for Attestation, Yorkshire Hussars (Army Form B. 198).

ENDNOTES: