John Pilkington Hudson

24/7/1910 - 6/12/2007

last changed 11 October 2012

• pictures
• his death
  • obituaries
• his life
  • in wartime
  • in peace-time
• notes

Some tiny snapshots from his life.

For a caption and a larger view, click any picture, then click OK in the little caption window.

Back to Dick Hudson's family

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.
  • The service sheet.
  • An appreciation by his friend Peter Waister (a former student and colleague).
  • Donations in his memory (divided unequally between All Saints Church and the Wrington Vale Medical Practice): £1,451.70. Thank you to everyone!
    • Letter of thanks from the Parish Church Council

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

• An excellent biography on Wikipedia.
• A musical and spoken tribute by his nephew David Dempster (in Florida) (added 31/12/07)
• Notes on his life written by Dick in 2004 with some input from him (and slightly revised since then).

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
  • Some pictures from his 90th birthday.
    • A poem composed for his 90th by his son Dick
  • Pictures from his 95th birthday (24th July 2005)
• 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