1894353 Sgt Thomas Hall.
22 Bomb Disposal Company.
Posted in the London Gazette on the 17 August 1943.
Awarded for an incidents at Mountnessing, Essex between the 4/9 March 1943.
On the night of the 3/4 March 1943, 364 Butterfly bombs, S.D.2's were dropped on Essex. Sgt Hall disposed of 32 of these at Mountnessing on the 5th then thirty two more on the 6th and nineteen on the 7th, for this he was awarded the George Medal.
Lt Evlyn Jolliffe Halstead-Hanby.
8 Bomb Disposal Section.
4 Bomb Disposal Company.
Posted in the London Gazette on the 22nd January 1941.
Awarded for an incident at Theatre Street, Norwich, Norfolk on the 23 September 1940.
After a raid on the night of 18/19 September, two large unexploded bombs were left in the city. These were in Theatre Street and Mousehold. On investigating the latter it exploded at 11.30 in the morning, all that was left was a thirty foot crater. Halstead - Hanby was uninjured. He then went to Theatre Street fully aware that this could also explode. He and his men commenced work on the 23rd at Theatre Street. The bomb was located at a depth of twenty feet. It was fitted with a new design clockwork fuze. He was able to remove the fuze enabling the centre of Norwich to return to normality, or as normal as wartime could be. Halstead - Halby was awarded the George Medal.
23056357 WO11 Stephen David Hambrook.
49 Bomb Disposal Squadron.
Posted in the London Gazette on the 21st April 1970.
Awarded for an incident at Petworth, Sussex between the 9/10 August 1969.
In 1941 a stick of bombs fell on marshy ground at Rotherbridge Farm, Petworth. three exploded the forth did not. Attempts to recover it failed due to excessive water and other UXB's being of higher priority. In 1969 due to land being reclaimed, 2 Troop, 49 BD Squadron was tasked to relocate it, under the command of Capt C.E. Nicholls. It was relocated and a shaft started on the 4th August 1969, the bomb was located at a depth of six metres, five days later. The bomb was a 250kg, fuzed with a No 17. A electric stethoscope was fitted and the fuze was found not to be ticking. The area was evacuated and Nicholls with the assistance of WO 11 Hambrook immunised the fuze and removed the base plate. the explosive powder had deteriorated. This resulted in nine litres of nitroglycerine having been formed. Due to the unstability of the explosives it could only be removed by hand. This operation took twenty nine hours, eleven of these under extreme danger.
276453 Maj Arthur Bamford Hartley MBE.
Posted in the London Gazette on the 25th March 1960.
Awarded for an incident in a sewer at Lower Richmond Road, Putney, London on the 1/2 July 1959.
Workmen doing excavation work, alongside a sewer discovered a large bomb and reported it to the police. Maj Hartley and Capt Dace RE, BD stationed at Horsham were sent to the incident. It was identified as a 250kg fitted with two No 17 fuzes. The area was cleared and immunising work commenced. The conditions were unsavoury as well as hazardous. Whilst the work continued the excavation collapsed and raw sewage flowed into the hole, Hartley and Dace continued to work with sewage up to their knees. By 05.00 on the 2nd the fuzes had been removed and the filling steamed out.
Lt P.M. Hennings.
12 Bomb Disposal Company.
Posted in the London Gazette on the 2nd February 1945.
Awarded for an incident on the East Coast.
Whilst engaged in minefield clearance operations early in 1944, Hennings was ordered to clear minefield on the South Coast, prior to D Day. All mines needed to be accounted for as no risk was to be left for the invasion forces due to use these beaches. There was no accurate minefield maps and some mines had moved due to tidal action. Hennings and his men cleared 2,500 mines with no loss life. For this and other incidents Hennings was awarded the George Medal.
73550 Capt William Mark Hewitt.
56 Bomb Disposal Section.
11 Bomb Disposal Company.
Posted in the London Gazette on the 25 March 1941.
Awarded for a incident in the River Tyne, East Linton, Est Lothian on the 30 October to the 1st November 1940.
A bomb landed in the River Tyne close to a bridge at East Linton. Capt Hewitt dived several times into the flooded river to locate the bomb. He could not see due to the mud the fuze type, but attempted to immunise it, these attempts were unsuccessfull. Finally he attached a rope to it and aided by Cpl Ramsey and Sapper Smith they were able to tie it round the bomb. The whole section assisted in pulling the bomb from the river. The fuze was identified and immunised, then the bomb sterilised. Thanks to Hewitt and his men a important bridge was saved from destruction.
2021663 L/Sgt John Henry Hinton.
9 Bomb Disposal Company.
68 Bomb Disposal Section.
Posted in the London Gazette on the 22 January 1941.
Awarded for work at the Triumph Engineering Works, Coventry between the 15th and 17th October 1940.
Whilst assisting Lt Campbell. L/Sgt Hinton was engaged in removing a 250kg bomb from the engineering works in Coventry. Due to this bomb work had ceased in the factory and some homes were evacuated. They worked for 48 hours without rest to remove this bomb. It was fitted with a delayed fuze, which could not be remove. The bomb was loaded onto a lorry and driven of to a safe distance.
1892128 Sgt Leonard Charles Clarence Hollands.
3 Bomb Disposal Company.
Posted in the London Gazette on the 19th November 1943.
Awarded for various tasks in Grimsby and Cleethorpes, Linconshire, between the 14 to 22nd June 1943.
16 June 43, dealt with a SD2, (Butterfly Bomb) in the circle of the Savoy Cinema, Victoria Street, Grimsby. Due to poor communication this had been completely covered by a sand bag, by a ARP warden. This Hollands removed by remote control. The friction in the tackle proved to much and he had to enter a false roof to get nearer and pull them free. The device exploded, luckly Hollands was protected by the sandbags. Another was found in a gutter at the Carr Lane School, this he reached by climbing along a sloping roof, with the risk of displacing slates onto the device. The 17th saw him dealing with 4 devices at the Tramway Depot Wharf, Victoria Street. The wharf was in a decaying state. To ensure nearby buildings were protected a sand bag wall was built. This proved dangerous in its self due to the poor condition of the wharf. When done the devices were destroyed by controlled explosions. The only damage two broken windows.
1880443 Corporal William Hone.
9 Bomb Disposal Company.
Posted in the London Gazette on the 30th September 1941.
Awarded for: Smiths Stamping Works 8th Oct 40, Morris Mechanisms Ltd 10 April 41, Daimler Factory 11 April 41, all in Coventry.
Cpl Horne was assiting his section officer, in the Morris Factory, dealing with a 250kg bomb. This was found under a capstan lathe. It was armed with a 17 and 50 fuze. This came as a great relief as they were using a pneumatic drill to dig down to it. It was uncovered and immunised in eight hours. Next the Daimler factory, a 1000kg bomb was discovered, it was located 20 feet down in waterlogged ground. The fuze was unidenifiable so a decision to steam it out was agreed upon. The base plate was jammed so it was cut of with a hacksaw, this took 5 hours working in bad conditions.
Major M.J.V Hoskins.
Awarded for clearance work in Penang 1967 to 69.
Thousand of tons were disposed of by demolition or sea dumping. All was in a dangerous condition after 21 years of corrosion and deterioration in a climate of 90% humidity. At the same time twelve man clearance teams under Hoskins were in Brunei and other places in Malaysia.
Maj M.J.V Hoskins was awarded the George Medal also honoured were S/Sgt J.C.V. Wood and G. Duncan, Order of the British Empire MBE.
Major R.H. Hough MBE.
Awarded in 1953 for minefield work.
Maj Hough and WO E.E. Thompson crawled into a live minefield at Mundesley on Sea, to recover Corporal Braddock who was injured. On reaching him it was found he was already dead.
154288 Major John Pilkington Hudson
George Medal and Bar, MBE.
HQ, Director of Bomb Disposal.
GM Posted in London Gazette on the 20th April 1943.
Awarded for an incident at Flour Mill, Albert Bridge, Battersea, London
on the 24 June 1943.
Major Hudson was a Boffin and needed fuzes for his research. He had developed a process for temporarily freezing a fuze, so enabling its removal whilst inert . He used this system on the Albert Bridge bomb. It took two hours the fuze pocket cracked, however no explosion occurred. It took twenty three minutes to remove the fuze, three over the safe time for freezing.
Bar to GM Posted in the London Gazette on the 13th September 1944.
Awarded for an incident at Strawberry Hill Farm, Staplecross, Sussex between 24th June and the 2nd July 1944.
Hudson assisted by Mr Hurst and Doctor Dawson went to investigate a flying bomb that had landed at the farm without going off. Tey wanted to examine the fuzing system, this being the first one to be found intact. Two fuzes found were the same as previous finds. The third in a rear side pocket was unmarked and unknown, it was to be recovered at all costs. Radiography equipment was used and showed a 17 clockwork fuze. Te operation was complex and went on for 9 days before it was removed, it was found to have only 32 minutes left to run when it had stopped.
