[5] On the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Hudson returned to England and was granted a commission as a temporary second lieutenant in his father's regiment, the Sherwood Foresters, on 17 November 1914.

The battalion, composed largely of civilian volunteers from coalfields in the counties of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, formed part of the 70th Brigade of the 23rd Division and left for France in August 1915.

[1] He was also mentioned in despatches five times, on 15 June 1916, 30 May 1916, 21 December 1917,[15] 6 January 1919, 9 July 1919 and 3 February 1920,[16] and was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Italian Silver Medal of Military Valor.

He was in command of a sector of the front line for several days during an action, and organised and carried out the defence of the position under continuous and violent enemy shelling.

[22] Hudson was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on 15 June 1918 near Asiago, Italy, during the Second Battle of the Piave River, as a 26-year-old temporary lieutenant-colonel in command of the 11th Battalion Sherwood Foresters.

Lt.-Col. Hudson, recognising its gravity, at once collected various headquarter details, such as orderlies, servants, runners, etc., and, together with some Allies, personally led them up the hill.

Without doubt the high courage and determination displayed by Lt.-Col. Hudson saved a serious situation, and had it not been for his quick determination in organising the counter-attack a large number of the enemy would have dribbled through, and counter-attack on a larger scale would have been necessary to restore the situation.After the war, Hudson, against advice and having embarked with a US Navy ship, volunteered to serve in the North Russia Intervention during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, where he was deployed as a brigade staff officer under the command of Brigadier-General Edmund Ironside at Archangel.

[24][1] Returning to England, in 1920 Hudson married Gladys Lee, from Glendale, Northumberland, who he had first met in London after having been wounded in Italy in 1918.

[28] He attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1926 to 1927, where his fellow students included Harold Alexander, William Holden, Douglas Wimberley, Rob Lockhart, Richard Lewis, Roy Bucher, George Clark, Richard Bond, Eric Harrison, Sidney Archibald, George Wood, Reginald Nolder, Euan Miller, Brian Robertson and Noel Holmes, all of whom were to become general officers in the upcoming war.

[36] He then returned to the 2nd Battalion of his regiment, serving in the Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, before moving down to Portsmouth to become part of the 9th Infantry Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Bernard Montgomery, who had been one of Hudson's Staff College instructors.

[37] Hudson was promoted to brevet lieutenant-colonel on 30 April 1938 and, on 2 June, to the temporary rank of brigadier[32] (and full colonel on the same date)[38] and took command of the 2nd Brigade.

The brigade was one of three which formed part of the 1st Infantry Division, whose General Officer Commanding (GOC) was Major-General Harold Alexander, an old friend from Sandhurst and Camberley days.

[39] Soon after the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Hudson led his brigade overseas to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).

[48] He was succeeded as GOC of the 46th Division by Major-General Douglas Wimberley, a fellow student at the Staff College in the mid-1920s, who was sympathetic to Hudson's plight.

[1] The division returned to the mainland in February 1943, moving to Essex and took part in Exercise Spartan, and moved to Kent in May, and the division was initially selected to play a role in Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, only to be reduced to the Lower Establishment soon after, becoming essentially a training formation with the intention of supplying replacements to overseas units.

Handing over command of the 182nd Brigade to Brigadier John Nichols in late November, he became aide-de-camp to King George VI from 1944 until his retirement from the army in 1946.

An obituary for Brigadier Charles Edward Hudson was published in the Old Shirburnian Society Annual Report in September 1959, reading: The decorations bestowed on Charles Edward Hudson themselves give proof of his calibre as a soldier: V.C., C.B., D.S.O and bar, M.C., Croix de Guerre, and Italian Silver Medal for Valour.

It was most fitting that such a distinguished Shirburnian whose own son was amongst those whose memory was there to be perpetuated, should perform the ceremony opening the Big Schoolroom on 10 November 1956.

He also wrote many poems based on experiences as far back as childhood that were also unpublished in his lifetime, as were two radio plays (never produced), ten short stories and many reflections on secular subjects.