AN EMOTIVE GREAT WAR 1916 M.M. AWARDED TO AN NCO OF THE 9TH SUFFOLK REGIMENT WHO AFTER BEING RECOMMENDED FOR COMMISSION, COMMITTED SUICIDE AT OFFICERS TRAINING CAMP IN MARCH 1918. HE HAD BEEN WOUNDED IN THE HEAD AND SEVERELY GASSED WHILST IN FRANCE

MILITARY MEDAL GV ‘15142. SJT: H. C. GEDNEY. 9/SUFF: R.’

M.M. London Gazette 27 October 1916

Hubert Chaston Gedney, son of Benjamin Chaston Gedney and Julia Roberta of Stradbroke, Diss, Norfolk. Having enlisted into the Ranks of the 9th Battalion Suffolk Regiment, he served in France from 30 August 1915. Having attained the rank of Sergeant by 1916 and also having been awarded the Military Medal, he was recommended for Commission and was sent to 20th Officers Training Company at Crookham Camp for training in early March 1918. During two weeks of training, his mood changed and it was reported he was suffering from the effects of being gassed and had wished to return to his unit. Sadly he committed suicide on the 26 March 1918, his body being found in the Basingstoke Canal. His obituary records that whilst serving on the Western Front, he served at the front for two years, nine months, during which time he had been wounded in the head and severely gassed. M.I.C. notes ‘Suicide during temporary insanity’.Sergeant Gedney was 26 years old at the time of his death. The Aldershot Gazette and Military News 5 April 1918:

Condition VF. On of 34 M.M.’s to 9th Suffolk’s during the Great War.