Signalling Class, 13th Field Brigade Royal Artillery. North Camp, Aldershot. November 1933
Jack Hoy is back row, second from left

Jack was born 12 December 1914 to Allan 'Sharper' Hoy and Kate née Frankln, living at Well House, West Mersea. Allan was a Farm Labourer and Horseman. Jack had older brothers Percy Allan, Ernest Nathan 'Din' and Sydney, and a younger sister Hazel. In 1929 his brother Sid joined the RAF and served for 25 years. Then in 1933, Jack joined the Army, signing up in Colchester, 13th Field Brigade, Royal Artillery.

In 1939 Jack married Julia May Harrington. She was from Ireland, and was always known as June. Friends and family knew her as Gin. In the Mersea tradition, Jack had a nickname - it was 'Navvy'.

It is thought that Jack was with the 17th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery from the beginning of WW2. In September 1939 they went to France with the British Expeditionary Force. The ship Jack was on was torpedoed but the ship reached Cherbourg.
The German advance down through Holland, Belgium and France was steady. Much of the B.E.F. was evacuated at Dunkirk, but Jack was with groups cut off south of the Somme who were evacuated from Cherbourg in June 1940.

By Mid-July 1940 the 17th Field Regiment was back in England re-organising, and Jack was able to see Mersea again.
The 17th Field Regiment was part of the 78th Division and by November 1942 they were in North Africa and then Tunisia May 1943. On the 10 July 1943 the Allied invasion of Sicily began.

On 10 September 1943 Jack was injured.

"What cased the injury was probably a British shell; he was ordered back behind his battle lines to an ammunition dump, driving a lorry or a Bren gun carrier with a sergeant and a major to pick up more shells and ammunition for the big guns and troops at the front.

"It was the first assault on Sicily with the 8th Army. They drove into an ammo dump and were loading up the vehicle when the dump received a direct hit from a German shell. The whole lot exploded, killing both the sergeant and the major. Jack was knocked unconscious by the explosion and blast; when he came to he tried to move but his injuries prevented him from doing so. He lay between his dead comrades waiting to be found and treated temporarily. He was taken to the military hospital in Alexandria and operated on. A piece of shrapnel as big as a matchbox was removed from his thigh - it had severed all of the ligaments and tendons in his thigh muscle. As a result he was unable to lift his foot up and if he did not wear a leg iron, his foot would drop. A spring arrangement fitted to the toe of his shoe kept his foot up.
From "Wild Life" by Jack Hoy jnr, page 41.

Jack's wife received news in a newspaper report from Alexandria 24 February 1944.

Mersea Soldier's Adventure
Lying in a base hospital in North Africa, Lance-Bombardier Jock Hoy [Jack Hoy, brother of Hazel Hoy], of East Road, West Mersea, sent this message to his wife, through a London newspaper correspondent:-

"I'm not allowed to tell you where I picked up this lump of 85 mm shrapnel, in my thigh, but we were putting out a fire in the battery caused by a lucky shell from Jerry. A few seconds later another fell to the rear and we knew we were caught in a bracket. Their third shot snashed into our ammunition wagon, and the whole issue went sky high. Tell her I'm feeling fine now."

Hoy had an adventurous life earlier in the Mediterranean campaign. He, two signallers and an officer joined a troop of Allied parachutists who were rooting out a pocket of German rearguards. They took up a position on a hilltop and established communication with their supporting batteries. Unfortunately the enemy came round their flanks and completely cut them off.

"Frankly, I was getting a bit worried,." but the officer just called for fire. We got it with a vengeance! Our reinforced batteries flung down a barrage that lifted those Jerries right off their feet."

Jack spent 18 months in hospital in Epsom after he had come back from Alexandria. He was released from the Army disabled 12 January 1945.

Jack was awarded the Africa Star, Italy Star, WW2 War Medal, and WW2 Defence Medals

Jack returned to Mersea to pick up the pieces of peacetime life. He and June had a daughter Norma and a son Jack. They lived at The Cottage, East Road, West Mersea. Jack snr worked for Eastern National as a bus conductor.
Jack died September 2001

Thanks to
Jack Hoy jnr.
Carol Wyatt

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