Thomas Edward Hulme

Unknown

Unexploded bomb expert Flight Lieutenant William John Hadnett was at the wheel of a car that mounted the footpath beside the Fosse Way at Farndon during the black-out and killed Army Lieutenant Thomas Edward Hulme, 35, as he walked with his wife from the cinema to the rented home they shared with their four children. He was driving so fast that his Vauxhall came to rest lying in a ditch. When Hadnett appeared in court and admitted dangerous driving, and having neither a driving licence nor insurance, he was fined £20, banned from driving for ten years and told by the judge: “In peace time there would have been nothing for it but to send you to prison. We feel, however, that in view of the services rendered to your country, we are justified in abstaining from sending you to prison. I believe, to your dying day, you will regret your conduct on that night.” The court had been told that Hadnett’s “particularly fine work” in dealing with one unexploded bomb had already earned him an MBE. Flight Lieutenant 42956 Hadnett survived the War. Elsie
May Hulme moved back to live in Gillingham.