Colonel Cecil Hopkins

[Will Marshall]

After much research and help through this brilliant forum I managed to come up with census's that gave me details of my great grandads brothers who served during ww1. However Last night while speaking over the topic with my granddad he mentioned A Cecil Hopkins one of the brothers. He believes he retired as a full colonel and served during ww1 ]ww1 definitely and probably ww2]. Through this forum and much help of others I found that Cecil was born in 1900 and was 6 months old during the 1901 census. I posted a message on 1914-18.net and it came up with this

Colonel Cecil Hopkins, OBE, RAOC

Born 30 Sep 1897

In ranks for 18 years, 40 days
Served in the the ranks of the Royal Marine Artillery in 1917 (British War Medal & Victory Medal)
Warrant Officer, Class 2 for 302 days
Warrant Officer, Class 1, 3 Oct 1936
Conductor (Warrant Officer Class 1), RAOC, 29 Oct 1938
Ordnance Executive Officer, 3rd Class, RAOC with rank of Lieutenant on 24 Dec 41
Acting Captain from 30 Apr 1941 to 29 Jul 41
Temp. Captain, RAOC, 30 Jul 41 to 12 Aug 43
War Substantive Captain, OEO 2nd Class, RAOC on 13 Feb 42
Temp. Major, RAOC, 21 Feb 42
War Subst. Major on 13 Aug 43
Acting Lt. Col., RAOC, from 13 May 43 to 12 Aug 43
Temp. Lt. Col., RAOC, 13 Aug 43
OBE, London Gazette 16 Sep 43
Major (OEO), RAOC, 7 Sep 48
Retired as Hon. Colonel, RAOC on 25 Sep 54

This would seem to be The Cecil i was looking for however the date of birth is questionable. I was hoping one of you lot might be able to prove or disprove this is his date of birth.

From what I already know Cecil was born 1900 to Francis Hopkins [1866] and Margaret Ann Dodds born 1865 in scarborough the last known residence to his parents was in 1901 14 Dumple street Scarborough. He served in the Army service corps for definite.

Is this man my Cecil Hopkins how many Cecil Hopkins would make it to colonel???

Any help with date of birth or other possible colonel Cecil hopkins would be great

Will

[liverpool annie]

First of all "this lot"  - can't prove or disprove:P

but there is a possibility that he lied about his age when he enlisted
It looks to me like this is your man - don't pay too much attention to the date
a few years either side isn't that much of a big deal!!
The important thing is the rest of the information!

Annie

[Kevwood]

Hi, Will what i can tell you is that if you search the gazette for Cecil Hopkins.
http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/archiveSearch.asp?WebType=0&Referer=full

he is the only one that is listed as just Cecil Hopkins.

Has his OBE listing and a couple of others as well.

Kev.

[Will Marshall]

Thats brills. You save me again mate thanks so much!!!!

[Kevwood]

Not in anyway conclusive , but with him not having a middle name, which is the same as yours, and if there was another colonel cecil hopkins i would have thought he would be mentioned in the gazette somewhere.

It has his army number on it also.

So you can order his service records with a letter from the next of kin, but they are £30 and take months to get, but i would imagine his are quite interesting as he served over 18 years.

Kev.

[Will Marshall]

yep thats what I was thinking. However how many Colonel Cecil Hopkins can there be? Plus my granddad was certain he as in the Army service Corps.

It would definitely be interesting to see what happend in his career. Ill have a go with that front.

Ill have another chat with my granddad and see wether he had any siblings which could lead to a possible face to the name.

Many thanks for your help. Ill be intouch if I find anything else

Will

[MarMnkly]

Hi Will, there is a mention of the death of Colonel Cecil Hopkins, O.B.E. [retired] R.A.O.C., on 18th November, 1979 which says: Beloved husband of Em and much loved and respected father of Patrick, Maureen and Marion.
You may be able to find out if the wife and childrens names are familiar?

hope this helps
Margaret

[Kevwood]

Will,

if you also put his army service number 118995 into the gazette he gets another couple of mentions for his retirement and a promotion.


Kev.

[Will Marshall]

Cheers people
Ill follow up these leads

thanks again

will