Great War Western Front and Second World War Middle East group awarded to Captain N.T. Hewkley, 9th Service Battalion, Essex Regiment, formerly 28th County of London Battalion - the Artist’s Rifles, London Regiment, and later General List. Hewkley came from Lewisham, London, and was commissioned in August 1917. During the Second World War he returned to uniform and saw service with the General List out in the Middle East when employed as a Staff Captain handling Casualties and Effects with the Headquarters of 2nd Echelon Middle East.
Group of 5: British War Medal and Victory Medal; (2. LIEUT. N.T. HEWKLEY.); Africa Star; Defence Medal; War Medal 1939-1945.
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine.
Together with the following:
British Forces Identification Card as issued through the Permit Officer British Forces, Middle East, dating from November 1941, with pass photo of Hewkley.
Door marker, bearing hand painted details for: ‘Capt. N.T. Hewkley. Staff Capt, Cas, & Effects. O2E.’
Norman Thomas Hewkley was born in July 1890 in Lewisham, London, he being baptised on 21 August 1890, the son of Jesse and Emma Lucy Hewkley, his father was a stockbroker, and th family lived at 45 Sunderland Road in Forest Hill, where they still were as of 1911, when he was working as a clerk. With the Great War he enlisted into the Territorial Force as a Private (No.6288) with the 28th County of London Battalion - the Artist’s Rifles, London Regiment, and then saw service with this unit, the 1/28th Battalion out on the Western Front from March 1916.
Hewkley’s battalion was then an established Officer Cadet Training Unit out at St. Omer, and it is unclear what he was initially doing with the unit, but was quite possibly employed as a clerk, before in-turn being put forward for a commission himself, he being commissioned through the unit on 8 August 1917 as a 2nd Lieutenant into the Essex Regiment. Posted to the 9th Service Battalion, his battalion formed part of the 35th Brigade in the 12th (Eastern) Division, He was twice hospitalised, but otherwise survived the war unscathed, and having been promoted to temporary Lieutenant on 8 February 1919, and then relinquished his commission on 1 September 1921. Hewkley claimed his medals in September 1921, at which time he gave two addresses: 5 Aylward Road, Forest Hill, London, and Hotel de Canada, 25 Rue Cambon, Paris.
With the onset of the Second World War, Hewkley was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant (No.116296) into the General List on 11 November 1940, and then appears to have been briefly employed in the Middle East with Headquarters of 2nd Echelon Middle East as a Staff Captain handling Casualties and Effects. Tewkley was married to Celia Ellen Fiddy and died on 2 September 1962.
