Horrors of war prevents Leabrook’s Hermann Fritz Hubbe following in footsteps of his forebears

LEABROOK resident Hermann Fritz Hubbe never had a chance to live up to the reputations of his forebears.

Supplied Editorial Hermann Fritz Hubbe, 20, of Leabrook, who died in 1916 during World War I. Source: Australian War

LEABROOK resident Hermann Fritz Hubbe never had a chance to live up to the reputations of his forebears.

Instead, he was killed on the first day of the Battle of Pozières in France, a battle which eventually led to the Australian 1st Division capturing the village of Pozières with 6800 killed or wounded.

Hubbe’s death, on July 23, 1916, age 20, was attributed to shrapnel wounds.

It came 16 years after his father, Captain Samuel Hubbe, died in the Boer War, at the age of 52.

He was shot in the heart while commanding the 3rd Bushmen’s Contingent in Western Transvaal, South Africa.

Fritz, as he was known, went to Prince Alfred College, worked as a clerk, never married and lived in Statenborough St, Knightsbridge (now Leabrook).

His grandfather, Ulrich Hubbe, was a pioneer of the Clare Valley and, with parliamentarian Sir Robert Torrens, helped create the Torrens Title system of land title registration.

The system was based on one in Hamburg, from where Ulrich arrived in Adelaide in 1842.

Hermann’s mother, Edith Agnes Hubbe, was the first woman in South Australia to matriculate and later became an activist promoting higher education for women.

She became headmistress of the Advanced School for Girls in Grote St in 1881 and then set up her own school, Mrs Hubbe’s Knightsbridge School, in 1886.

Her daughter, Doris, married Allen Simpson, a former mayor of Adelaide and a director of the Simpson whitegoods company, who bought Undelcarra estate in 1919.

It was subdivided in the 1960s to include streets such as Hubbe Court (named after Edith) and Undelcarra Rd, where the Simpsons’ son, retired neurosurgeon Professor Donald Simpson, still lives.

“My mother was very fond of him (Fritz),” Prof Simpson, 87, said.

“If she had a favourite in the family, he was it.”

THIS story is part of Messenger’s 100 Years, 100 Days, 100 Stories project, which will profile 100 South Australian World War I heroes as the nation builds up to the centenary of the Allied landing on Gallipoli on April 25, 1915. If you have the details and war record of a family member who served during World War I, let us know. Please go to your local Messenger’s Facebook page and send us the details.

Originally published as Horrors of war prevents Leabrook’s Hermann Fritz Hubbe following in footsteps of his forebears