Hubert James Willey

Who was Hubert James Willey?

Hubert James Willey, DCM & Bar was twice awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, then the second highest British gallantry award, for his service on the Western Front, during the First World War.

Born in Dublin, the second son of James Willey and Emily Maud Bannister, he joined the Rifle Brigade soon after the outbreak of war.

Willey was first awarded the DCM for an action in 1915, just over a month after his eighteenth birthday. He was serving with 9th Battalion The Rifle Brigade in the Ypres Salient. As part of the British offensive at Loos a number of subsidiary attacks were organised. The 14th and 3rd Divisions were ordered to attack the strong German positions at Bellewaarde Farm, near Hooge, that overlooked the British line. These positions were held by several battalions of the Königlich Wörttembergisches Reserve-Infantrie-Regiment Nr 248. The Rifle Brigade's regimental history describes the attack as a 'costly fiasco'. Some battalions were hardly able to advance at all, others including 9/RB, ended up beyond their objectives. The battalion was then in a highly exposed and unsupported position, taking very heavy casualties, eventually losing all but four officers and one hundred and forty men. In his own account of the action, the commanding officer, Lt Col Villiers-Stuart, gave the number of casualties as 1,116 of all ranks - a casualty rate of in excess of 85%.