Military History

Hugh is listed as being killed in action on 31st July 1916 when HMS Defence was blown to pieces and sunk during the Battle of Jutland with the loss of all hands. The following description of the events leading to the sinking of HMS Defence is taken from this Wikipedia article.

During the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916, she was the flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnot, leading the First Cruiser Squadron and was captained by Stanley Venn Ellis. The squadron formed the starboard flank of the cruiser screen, ahead of the main body of the Grand Fleet. Defence was just to the right of the centre of the line. At 17:47 Defence and HMS Warrior, the leading two ships of the squadron, spotted the German II Scouting Group and opened fire. Their shells fell short and the two ships turned to port in pursuit, cutting in front of the battlecruiser HMS Lion, which was forced to turn away to avoid a collision.

Shortly afterwards, they spotted the disabled German light cruiser SMS Wiesbaden and closed to engage. When the two ships reached a range of 5,500 yards (5,000 m) from Wiesbaden they were spotted in turn at 18:05 by the German battlecruiser SMS Derfflinger and four battleships which were less than 8,000 yards (7,300 m) away. The fire from the German ships was heavy and Defence was hit by two salvoes from the German ships that caused the aft 9.2-inch magazine to explode. The resulting fire spread via the ammunition passages to the adjacent 7.5-inch magazines which detonated in turn. The ship exploded at 18:20 with the loss of all hands, between 893 and 903 men were killed.