[caption id="attachment_200" align="alignright" width="650"] A Regimental Aid Post on the Western Front[/caption]
For a man to have ‘died of wounds received in action’ he must have received medical attention before he died, even if only at the Regimental Aid Post immediately behind the front line. Aid Posts had no holding capacity so the seriously wounded were evacuated via Advanced Dressing Stations to Casualty Clearing Stations, out of the immediate range of the firing line. These too only had a limited holding capacity so the very seriously wounded were transferred to a stationary hospital, and some were returned to Britain – hence the term a ‘Blighty' wound.
Wilfred Hudson's epitaph repeats the words of the telegram his parent's received, ‘Deeply regret to inform you that 2nd Lieutenant W Hudson Royal Engineers died of wounds received in action on February 8th’. Hudson died in the Casualty Clearing Station at Lijssenthoek, 20km behind the front line at Ypres. The hospital records give the cause of death as, ‘bullet in the abdomen’.