Edward Percy Hogben

Edward Percy Hogben  1899 – 1989

Edward Hogben, known as Ted, was probably born on 10th March 1899 in Swingfield, to George Coleman Hogben and Elizabeth Bass (née Belsey). The records appear to show that he had a twin brother named Percy Edward. 

George and Elizabeth had nine children, with George working as an agricultural labourer during his earlier career. By the time of the 1911 Census, Ted is shown living at Grove Cottage, Netherton, with his twin Percy, and younger brothers Robert and James. George continued living in Grove Cottage until at least 1934, according to the local Dover directories.

Although no further records have been confirmed as his due to a lack of further evidence, it is likely that he and his twin enlisted in the War at the same time and in the same regiment, as there are two surviving Medal and Award Roll records showing Edward Percy as Private 136662, in the Machine Gun Corps, with Percy Edward as the next consecutive number in the same Regiment.

Following the War, apart from a possible entry in the National Union of Railwaymen records in 1919 where he was described as a guard, records show that he emigrated to Australia in 1925, bound for Fremantle on the SS Oronsay. His address on embarkation was given as Grove Cottage, Shepherdswell.

A family tree, on the Ancestry website, indicates that he married Clarice Myrtle Willmott in 1936 in Perth. There is also a possible entry for him in the Australian Forces in WW2 in 1939, with the service no W84097. If this is the correct man, he died in 1989 and is buried in the Allambie Park Cemetery in Albany, Western Australia.