Notes
Hugh Wilfred Napier Seymour was born in Brighton on 1 October 1917, the only son of Brigadier General William Seymour of the Rifle Brigade, and Muriel (née Campbell). He was educated at Charterhouse School from 1931 to 1935 and entered Worcester College, Oxford on 9 October 1936. He was a member of the College Boat Club, rowing with the 2nd Torpid in 1937, and achieved 3rd class honours in PPE in 1939.
Hugh Seymour attended an Officer Cadet Training Unit before being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort’s Own) on 4 July 1940. On 14 June 1942 the 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade was holding positions near the town of Acroma in Libya. At 4pm, the strategically important position of Point 187 came under a heavy attack led by some forty German tanks. The garrison there blew up its guns and fled under heavy machine gun fire which caused many casualties. This exposed the flank of B Battery, 11th Royal Horse Artillery, which was protected by infantry support from the Rifle Brigade, led by Lieutenant C.T.G. Hunter and Hugh Seymour. When the Germans attacked, they quickly overran the positions with both Hunter and Seymour's Platoons being wiped out. Lieutenant Hugh Seymour was killed in action, aged 24.
Hugh Seymour is commemorated on the Alamein Memorial, and on the war memorials at Charterhouse School and Worcester College, Oxford.