Hedley Goldsmith Browne worked for the Norwich Union Life Insurance Society in the Norwich head office. He was a keen gymnast and swimmer who enjoyed motor cycle racing and coxed the office rowing fours. He enlisted in 1914 as a motor cycle dispatch rider and also served in the Royal Engineers. He served three years in France and fought at Mons, the Marne and the Somme. On 30 October 1914 he wrote to his father John, who worked for the Norwich Union Fire Society,: “have been stuck in a small stable all the day… They started shelling us this morning at dawn with high explosives and “Jack Johnsons” and have kept it up off and on ever since. Two houses within twenty yards have been blown to pieces and in the ground all around us the shells have made holes big enough to bury a horse. Four big shells have - My word! We’ve just had a fright, one got this roof and has made a large hole: one fellow wounded in the leg." On 31 October he wrote again: “They... are still popping shells around the place we left yesterday… Just got hold of a fine German bayonet complete: am fastening it on the bike... Did I tell you about the bullets coming through the roof in the last house when we were asleep – in one side and out the other? Don’t worry I shall come through." In May 1915 he wrote: “since we landed in France I have been waiting for the opportunity of seeing what trench life is really like; also to have one pot at the Bosche. Well to-day the chance came, and a comrade and myself set out early. We entered the communication trench about one and a half miles from the actual firing line, the starting point being labelled Marble Arch – all the trenches hereabouts were named after London streets. Thus we proceeded along Harley Street to the Brickfields, which the Guards Brigade had captured from the Germans a month previously, turned down Coldstream Lane and arrived at the actual firing line. My first feeling was one of absolute security (as long as I refrained from popping my head over) the trench being so deep that it was necessary to stand on a step to see between the sand bags. A peep through the periscope showed dozens of Germans lying dead between the two lines, and the sight made me realise the horror of it all. I borrowed a rifle and was enabled to send a ‘souvenir’ or two to the enemy.” Hedley obtained his aviators certificate in January 1918 and joined the Royal Air Force as a 2nd Lieutenant. He was killed in a flying accident when his plane crashed and caught fire at Rendcombe, Gloucestershire. He was 29.

Anna Stone