Ernest Oliver Gidden

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Lieutenant Ernest Oliver Gidden was awarded the George Cross for the "great gallantry and undaunted devotion to duty" he showed while defusing mines and bombs during the Blitz in London. He served at HMS President with the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and was cited for making safe a mine which had fallen on Hungerford Bridge. Notice of the award appeared in the London Gazette of 9 June 1942.^[1]

The air raid had destroyed several trains, caused underground services to be halted and the discovery of the unexploded bomb had prompted the evacuation of the War Office itself. Gidden found the mine had come to rest across the railway's live high voltage line and that he would have to turn it over to reach the fuse. Working from dawn, it took six hours for him to make the device safe, at times having to ease the distorted casing back with a hammer and chisel where it had melted onto the live 'third rail'.^[2]

He had earlier been awarded the George Medal for defusing a mine which had fallen between two houses in Harlesden in the late summer of 1940. The notice for this award appeared in the London Gazette of 14 January 1941. ^[3]