Charles and Percy were the sons of Arthur Hubbard and Rose Stonehouse. Arthur was a Framework Knitter living at Wigston Magna and Rose was working as a Domestic Servant/Cook for the Vicar of Whetstone in 1881. The couple married on the 10th April 1882 at St Marks Church in Leicester, the church was consecrated only ten years before on 25/4/1872.
The couple were living in Cavendish Road in Aylestone in 1891, but moved to Knighton, living at 127 Sheridan Street and later at 53 Knighton Fields Road West. Arthur worked at the Gas Works on Aylestone Road, he and Rose went on to have seven children, Matilda born in 1883 was working as a Cigar Box Maker at the age of 17, Gertrude born in 1885 and Charles born in 1887 both worked as Shoe Hand Fitters, Winifred born in 1889, Wallace born in 1891, Percy born in 1895 and Albert who was born in 1897.
Rose died before the outbreak of the war in 1907 at the age of 52 and didn’t see her three oldest sons enlist into the army. Only one of which survived the war. Wallace who had been working as a Gas Fitter, was a Private in the Army Service Corps, he was eventually discharged on 25th October 1919 due to the disability of Malaria as it was attributable to being in the service, he was awarded a Pension. By 1939 he was living at no 1 Cottagers Close, near to the Pork Pie Library.
On the 4th October 1916, the Leicester Daily Post reported that Mr Hubbard of 53 Knighton Field Road West had been officially notified that his eldest son Private Charles Hubbard was killed on action on September 15th. He was 28 years old, he’d joined up about 11 months earlier having been previously employed at the Wheatsheaf Boot Works of the C.W.S. It was also noted that he had two other sons serving in the Army, one being in the Leicester Regiment and the other in the City of London Regiment. Charles was buried at Bienvillers Military Cemetery in France and his inscription reads ‘Thinking That Remembrance Will Reach Him Where He Sleeps Sadly Missed’.
The following year Percy was also killed in Action on 30/10/1917 aged only 22. He was a Lance Corporal in the City of London Battalion, Post Office Rifles. He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium, which includes 35,000 names of men with no known grave, most of which had died between August 1917 and November 1918. He is also listed on Leicester’s Post Office Memorial which was originally held at Bishop Street
Post Office, but is now is at Leicester Mail Centre, Centurian Way and can be visited by appointment. As well as Percy’s name it also includes fellow Post Office worker William Munton, who joined the same regiment and died in 1917.
