Huberht Taylor Hudson
| ( 17/09/1886 – 15/06/1942 ) BORN : ISLINGTON. LONDON. ENGLAND. DIED : LOST AT SEA. CONVOY DUTY. WW11 NICKNAME : BUDDHA DUTY : NAVIGATOR. |
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| Huberht Hudson was the second eldest of seven children born to Herbert and Caroline Emma Hudson. In all they had three sons and four daughters. Hudson was born in Holloway. London, and being born within the sound of Bow Bells, was proud to call himself a “Cockney”.The name Huberht is the old Anglo-Saxon spelling of Hubert. In 1891 his father, Herbert held the position of Principal of a Private School and the family resided at 70 Eccles Road. Battersea. London. By 1901 Hudson’s father had become a Clergyman of the Church of England and the family had by that time moved to The Vicarage, Berden, Essex. Hudson was a mate in the Royal Navy when he signed on for the expedition. His claim to fame during the expedition was his ability to catch Penguins, which were to become a major source of food during the time the party spent camped on the Weddell Sea Ice and on Elephant Island. It is believed that the nickname “Buddha” was earned by him after Hurley tricked him into thinking that a fancy dress evening was being held during their stay at South Georgia. Hudson turned up dressed as a Buddhist monk! Hudson had a particularly bad time during the voyage to Elephant Island and spent most of his time on the island, like Blackborow, confined to the hut where he coped as best he could with a nervous breakdown and a festering boil on his rear! During World War 1 Hudson served on “mystery ships”. After the war he joined the British India Navigation Society. His health began to fail him once more, but did not stop him from performing his duty and during World War II he was a Commodore in the Royal Naval Reserve working mainly on convoy duty. Hudson died at sea. His ship H.M.S. Eaglet was returning home in a convoy from Gibraltar, when at 4 a.m. on 15th June.1942 she was torpedoed and sank. Hudson went down with his ship. He was aged 55. |
