Hugh Frewen joined the battle at Gallipoli

A Royal Naval Division recruitment poster from the Great War. Sub Lieutenant Hugh Frewen RNVR was one of their recruits.This is the fifth in a short series on the life and times of Captain Hugh Frewen.

The First World War broke out on 28 July 1914. In August, Hugh Frewen’s cousin Winston Churchill, now First Lord of the Admiralty, decided to expand the Royal Naval Division as a military force to support naval operations.

The new battalions were formed from navy reservists, surplus seamen and volunteer recruits. A new Royal Naval Division headquarters and training camp was established at Blandford in Dorset.

One of those who volunteered to join was Sub Lieutenant Hugh Frewen RNVR, training with the newly formed Benbow battalion. Following training, the battalion embarked for Gallipoli.

On 30 May 1915, Frewen landed with the first reinforcements at Cape Hellas, being promoted in the field to Lieutenant RNVR.

 In early August, Frewen took part in the disastrous landing at Sulva Bay. Following the death of their company commander, Frewen with half the company made their way along the beach to join the ANZAC forces at ANZAC Cove. 

At ANZAC Cove, Frewen was attached to the ANZAC forces in what appears to have been an engineering role, taking part in the construction of the light tramway which linked the Cove with Shrapnel Valley and Lone Pine.

I think that it was this period that helped form Frewen’s later interest in the possibility of moving to Australia. 

In October, Frewen returned to his battalion at Cape Helles taking command of C Company. The following month, he was invalided with malaria after six months campaigning under almost continuous fire.

Frewen would go on to serve on the Western Front with the Royal Naval Division, finishing the war as a Captain, RNVR. 

The war placed great strain on Frewen’s marriage to donna Maria Nunziante.

The couple had married on 21 February 1914. Two sons followed, Hugh and Jerome.

Now I think that Maria, a noted beauty, had become bored and perhaps frustrated with her husband. It also seems that Hugh Frewen had fallen in love with another woman.

The pair divorced In January 1922. Maria would marry and then divorce Marchese Strozzi of Florence before marrying Irish banker Benjamin Guinness.

On Hugh’s side, his restless spirit was about to take him in yet new directions.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 7 August 2019. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019