John Pilkington Hudson
24/7/1910 - 6/12/2007
last changed 11 October 2012
Some tiny snapshots from his life.
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His death
- He died peacefully at home in Wrington on 6th December 2007
- The funeral: All Saints Church, Wrington, at 12.00 on Monday 17th December.
Obituaries
- Agrimag (2008; this is the alumnus journal of the former Midland Agricultural College at Sutton Bonington) - a collective tribute with contributions by Brian Self, Sylvia Parrett, Peter Waister, Peter Alderson and Julian Wiseman.
- Experimental Agriculture (2008, volume 44, pp. 141–144) - a full-length obituary by his former student, Brian Self.
- BD News for March 2008.
- The Guardian for 8 February 2008, by Dan van der Vat, a distinguished military historian. (Note about 'liquid hydrogen')
- Three tributes in the local village journal for February 2008. (The tribute by Nicholas Maddock was also published in the Chew Valley Gazette for February 2008.)
- The Royal Horticultural Society's magazine The Garden for February 2008 (page 83) - a brief notice by his former student Brian Self.
- The New Zealand Herald for 19 January 2008.
- The Fruit Grower for January 2008, by Malcolm Withnall, a founding member of the 'Under-40s Club' that he initiated for young growers. This obituary will be reprinted in The New Zealand Garden Journal, June 2008.
- The Army Rumour Service, 8 January 2008.
- The Independent for 8 January 2008 by his student, colleague and friend Peter Waister.
- The Buxton Advertiser for 27 December 2007.
- The Times for 21 December 2007. (Note about 'liquid hydrogen')
- The Old Plumptonians Association News, added 19 December 2007.
- The Liverpool Daily Post for 13 December 2007.
- The Telegraph for 12 December 2007.
- A brief fragment of an obituary that he wrote for himself.
His life
Details of his wartime career
- An excellent book, with about 37 sympathetic pages about him: James Owen, "Danger UXB. The heroic story of the WWII Bomb Disposal Teams. (Little, Brown, 2010)
- A book about bomb disposal with about 13 pages about his work, but little about him: Melanie. Jappy, Danger UXB. (Channel 4 Books, 2001)
- A record of his promotion from Serjeant to Second Lieutenant, 26 October 1940
- A fragment of an account (by him) of a day at Dunkirk in 1940.
- An account (written by him in 1990) of his first Bomb Disposal assignment in the Sheffield blitz around Christmas 1940.
- Details of the Y-fuze bomb incident in 1943 for which he got his
first George Medal
- the official citation giving the reasons for the award
- announcement of the award in the London Gazette, 20 April 1943
- Details of the V1 bomb incident in 1944 which earned him his second George Medal (called a 'bar' to the first one)
- the official citation giving the reasons for the award
- announcement of the award in the London Gazette, 15 September 1944
- a brief account of the incident in a local history of the area
- A two-page article from Radio Times 10-16 Feb 2001 about the two-part series on Channel 4, 'Danger Unexploded Bomb', featuring him as one of the interviewees.
- a building named after him : Hudson House, the HQ of the only Royal Engineer Territorial Army Bomb Disposal Regiment.
Details of his peace-time career
- the announcement of his CBE in the London Gazette, 31 December 1974.
- Two brief biographical articles published in 2001 for members of Nottingham university.
- from the University magazine
- from AGRIMAG, journal of the Old Kingstonian Association, the alumnus organisation of the University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus; p100/101
- Recent birthdays
- A poem by his father William Arthur Hudson about a nursing chair and its users.
Notes
- 'Liquid hydrogen'. Both the Times and the Guardian describe the coolant that John used for disabling bomb-fuse batteries as liquid hydrogen. This is wrong - it was actually liquid oxygen.
Back to the page of his son Richard Hudson
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