Maurice was the younger brother of Percy Adolphus and he was born in 1898 and in the 1911 Census, he is noted as being 13 years of age and still at school, whilst living at home with his parents, William and Mary Ellen and siblings, Percy, Lucy, Kathleen and Sybil.
Unfortunately, Maurice’s WWI Service Record has not survived, but his Medal Index Card (MIC) shows that he was awarded a British War Medal and a Victory Medal. This shows that he did not serve overseas before 1st January 1916, and given that he would not have reached 18 years of age until 1916, this makes sense.
We can deduce that Maurice was a bright boy at school as records show that at some point after leaving school, he went to work for Ordnance Survey as a cartographer. Therefore, when war was declared and the stalemate on the Western Front set in, skilled map producers were much in demand.
Maurice became 38614 Sapper Maurice D’Hooghe of the mapping section of the Royal Engineers and proceeded to France where he was involving in surveying and producing trench maps.
Although not strictly a fighting soldier, Maurice was not immune to the rigours of war and at some point during his service, he was overcome and invalided back to the UK after being gassed. Sadly, the damage to Maurice’s lungs must have been severe as he died at Malton, Yorkshire from the effects of his war service in February 1919 aged 21. He lies today in the town cemetery.
The Register of Soldier’s Effects shows that his back-pay of £22 was paid to his father in September 1919.
In October 2021, whilst in the south of England, I paid an out of the blue call at the Ordnance Survey Headquarters in Southampton and persuaded them to let me visit the OS War Memorial that stands in their grounds. There I was able to view Maurice’s name on the memorial and pay my respects to this brave young man.
I am also aware that Maurice’s war medals are held by a private collector, still in their original boxes. The collector has so far refused to sell me the medals but I do have a photograph of them. At some point in time, Maurice’s medals have been separated from his Death Plaque and I am very fortunate to have that in my collection.
