Universities at War

Robert Hogg was born in 1894, son of Son of William and Margaret J. Hogg of Marsden Grove, Whitburn. He attended first Sunderland Bede Collegiate Boys' School 1908-1911, then Bede College 1912-1914 where he gained his Master’s Certificate, qualifying as a school teacher. He was appointed to Seaham Colliery School, but the outbreak of war prevented him taking up his post there, and he enlisted at Durham, joining 1/8^th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry as Private 1955. He went to France with the battalion on 19 April 1915 and served in A Company. He was killed during the battalion’s defence of the Gravenstafel Ridge in the 2nd Battle of Ypres on 26 April 1915. He was aged 21. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated at the Menin Gate at Ypres, Belgium. His sacrifice is also honoured on the Bede College 1914-1918 Cross, Plaque, and Roll of Honour. In addition various memorials in the Whitburn area also record his name: the Obelisk on the Green; the Brotherhood Plaque, and plaques in the Church of St Mary and the Methodist Church.