The John & Frances Hobday Collection

BZ29

The John & Frances Hobday Collection

1904 - 1979

English

• <persname>Hobday, Thomas Frederick, d c 1939, ship's cook</persname>
• <persname>Hobday, John, of Richmond, Surrey</persname>
• <persname>Hobday, Frances, Richmond, Surrey</persname>

4 series

Thomas Frederick Hobday [d. C. 1939/40, Ledbury], is said to have run away to sea, where he learned the trade of ship's cook. He compiled ms. recipe books from 1904 (BZ29/1/1 - 3), catering for large numbers. Then, C.1915 is said to have joined T. Walls & Sons, with whom his catering expertise appears to have been useful in food preservation, especially meat products. His son, John William Hobday, appears to have followed his father's trade and became a member of staff at T. Walls & Sons, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, specialising in cooking, processing, preserving and canning foodstuffs, including army rations. He annotated and added to his father's recipe books from C.1933. He lived with his wife, Frances and their first son in Richmond, Surrey. He was a member of the Richmond Detachment of the T.A. and, after call-up in August 1939, held the rank of Lieutenant in the East Surrey Regiment. While on a second tour of duty in France in June 1940, he was captured near St Valerie on the northern coast. He was interned in a series of prisoner-of-war camps including Kreigsgefangen-Offizier Lager (Oflag) VIIC at Laufen, south-east of Munich. He was transferred by rail to Oflag XXI D, Posen (Poznan), Poland [in 1941] and wrote notes on the first days after his arrival there. (BZ29/2/1). He was later moved to Kreigsgefangen-Mannschafts-Stammlager (Stalag) XX A, Thorn (Poland) and to Oflag V B, Biberach (Bavaria, Germany). He may then have been transferred to Oflag VI B, Dossel Warburg (Westphalia, Germany) and to Oflag VII B, Eichstaett (Bavaria, Germany). Just before his move on foot (Friday, 13 Apr. 1945) to Stalag VII A, Moosberg, (Bavaria, Germany), until his recapture and evacuation to Rheims, France (Tuesday 8 Jun. 1945) he kept a daily diary (BZ29/2/2). He remained with the Army just after the war, posted to Brussels, Belgium (BZ29/6/6-7) and was invited, as an ex-"Kreigie", to join the Wooden Horse Club in 1951 (BZ29/3/4). Frances Hobday bore him another son shortly after his capture. She kept a binder of newspaper cuttings, primarily about the fate of prisoners-of-war, from 1941-1943. This shows, by circles drawn round some names on a map of P.o.W. camps, which camps her husband was held in (BZ29/6/1). She probably purchased (in 1941) the included copy of the limited edition "The Prisoner's Progress" (BZ29/7/4). This details, in water-coloured graphics, the main route of prisoners-of-war to Oflag VIIC, Laufen on foot, by barge and by rail. John Hobday may well have taken this route. There are two other printed volumes in this collection detailing the life of P.o.W.s; "Joe in Germany" [1947] and "The Quill" (1947) (BZ29/7/6 & 7). Frances Hobday was still in contact with her sister-in-law, Mrs. Florence Knight, in 1979 (BZ29/6/8)