Hubert Franklin Madders, born on 10th August 1880, was admitted to King Edward’s School in September 1891. Hubert was the son of Jane and John Messenger, a bank manager, and the family lived at ‘Rockwood’, Ryland Road, Edgbaston.
At School, Hubert was a strong bowler for the 1st XI, taking three wickets for 9 runs against Warwick in 1897. He also played as a “young and promising forward” in the 1st XV, who “always worked his hardest in the scrum…and showed great determination.” Hubert was a strong academic too, placing third in the Second Class, taught personally by the Headmaster, Albert R. Vardy. He went on to study at London University, living in a property owned by his father on Landsdowne Road, Kensington. After graduating, he became a solicitor, operating in London, where he met his wife Kate (née Berkeley), whom he married on 16th April 1911 at St John the Evangelist Church, Ladbroke Grove. The couple lived at 87, Hampstead Way, London.
In November 1915, Hubert gained a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery, 168th Brigade. He was killed on 1st July 1916, aged thirty-five, on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, and is buried in Bouzincourt Communal Cemetery Extension, France. He left his estate of £4,322 to his wife, who applied for his medals in 1920 and requested that the inscription on his headstone should read: “Whoso Takes The World’s Life On Him And His Own Lays Down…Lives.”