By Ken Battle
Eighty years ago in November 1941, a young member of the WW2 Sunbury Home Guard drowned beside Sunbury Lock whilst being ferried there for duty. His father was a WW1 hero with a VC, but the death of his son eventually led him to take his own life in 1954.
Following Britain’s declaration of war on Germany on 4th August 1914, Frederick William Hedges enlisted on the 6th August and was posted as rifleman 2182 to the 1st/9th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Queen Victoria’s Rifles). The battal-ion left for the Western Front in France in November and fought in the First Battle of Ypres in 1914. In January 1915 Frederick suffered severe frostbite and was evacuated to England for recovery. In July 1915 he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Bed-fordshire Regiment and with the 9th Reserve battalion became a Musketry Officer training new recruits. Frederick returned to France in September 1916 to join the 6th battalion, where he again fought before becoming wounded by shrapnel and returned to Eng-land for treatment in April 1917. After recovery he was promoted to full Lieutenant in July 1917 and became a machine gun instructor with the 3rd Reserve battalion. In September 1918 he returned to the West-ern Front in France for a third tour of duty attached to the 6th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment. Dur-ing the Battle of the Selle in October 1918, Frederick was awarded the Victoria Cross for conspicuous brav-ery and initiative in capturing six German machine gun posts and fourteen prisoners. After promotion to Captain he suffered a serious head wound on 4th No-vember 1918 in the Mormal forest and was in hospital in England when the war ended on 11th November 1918.
In the early 1930’s, Captain Frederick William Hedg-es VC, with his wife Mollie and only son John, settled in their new home at The Avenue, Sunbury. John was a member of the Thames Ditton Skiff and Punting Club and the Thames Valley Skiff Club where he achieved success in several local regattas.
With the Declaration of War on 3rd September 1939, John immediately applied for entry into the RAF.
In the summer of 1941, John became a member of the Sunbury Home Guard, 31st Middlesex Battalion (Upper Thames Shore Patrol) ‘B’ Company, where he trained as a machine gunner.
His mother Mollie was a section lead-er in Sunbury’s ARP Ambulance Ser-vice and John was also a part-time member of the Sunbury ARP War-dens’ Service.
The family tragedy began at 2am on a cold and dark winter morning on the 14th November 1941 when 17 year old John arrived at the Home Guard HQ at Clark’s lower boatyard Thames Street to report for duty at Sunbury Lock. John was wearing his full battle dress with overcoat, Service respirator, steel helmet, haversack, rifle and bayonet. John shouted to one of his comrades, Harry Gear, already on duty at the Lock, requesting a boat to ferry him across. Gear, also in full battle dress and carrying his rifle, then rowed across in a two-seater coracle to collect John. Everything seemed alright as Gear started to row back but when they were within about five yards of the Lock, John noticed water coming aboard and the boat quickly sank. Gear managed to swim to a landing stage and heard John call for help although it was too dark to see him. Gear took off some of his heavy clothing and dived back into the water but had to get out almost immediately as the current was too strong. The police were imme-diately informed and by 2.30am dragging had com-menced and continued throughout the day without success. On Saturday 13th December, a local resident saw the body floating in a backwater by the Lower Hampton Road, below Sunbury Lock. The Coroner recorded a verdict of Accidental Death. On behalf of the officers and men of the deceased’s Battalion, Lieut. Colonel G. Carpenter, expressed sympathy with Capt. and Mrs. Hedges in their bereavement. The shock of their son’s death led Frederick and Mollie to consider distancing themselves from the scene of the accident and later they left their home in The Avenue, following an offer from Frederick’s employers to relocate in Leeds and later Harrogate. Frederick’s depression over John’s death never really left him and in May 1954 while Mollie was away from their Harro-gate home for about 45 minutes, Frederick committed suicide by hanging himself from a newel post on the landing, leaving Mollie to grieve for the loss of her husband and son. John Hedges’ name is shown on the WW2 Memorial Board, 1939-45, at St. Mary’s church, Sunbury.
Ken Battle is a member of the Sunbury and Shepper-ton Local History Society.