Lives in Cricket No 26 - HV Hesketh-Prichard

120 War and its Aftermath nursing home. Blood transfusion was tried but was of no permanent help. He expressed a wish to be taken away from the heat of London, and he was brought to Gorhambury on 9 June and died on14 June. The funeral was on St Alban’s Day in St Michael’s. Hex’s death certificate was issued the day after his death, with information given by his sister-in-law Vera Headlam. The cause of death is given as ‘streptococcal endocarditis’, so an infection which has affected the heart, but also mentions ‘general septicaemia’ as an illness contracted during war. I suspect today we might look at this as resulting from damage to his immune system leaving him at risk from disease. There was an attempt later to get a war widow’s pension for Lily, but it seems to have been unsuccessful. His occupation, incidentally, is given as ‘major (retired), attached GHQ’ . No mention of his writing there. The Times carried a report on the funeral and a lengthy obituary. Following cremation at Golders Green, the ashes were placed in the vault of the Grimston family at St Michael’s Church, St Albans, a few hundred yards from his home at Prae Wood. The singing included Tennyson’s Crossing the Bar and the aristocracy were present in numbers, joined by Major- General John Hay Beith, better known as the novelist and playwright Ian Hay, and Mr G.Herbert Thring for the Society of Authors. John Buchan said ‘In that task he wore down his magnificent physique, and his death was as much a war casualty as if he had fallen in action.’ Hex’s Ashes were interred here in the Grimston family vault at St Michael’s Church, St Albans.