George Alfred Hickson

1914 - 1979  (65 years)

• Name	George Alfred Hickson
  Born	24 Jul 1914	Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [1]
  Gender	Male
  FindAGrave	https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/209356568
  Military	WW2
  		Hickson,GeorgeAlfred-001-FindAGrave.png
  Residence	1953	36 Herlan Ave., Kitchener, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-225625
  Died	15 Aug 1979  [1]
  Buried	Woodland Cem., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [1]
  Person ID	I225625	Generations
  Last Modified	28 Jan 2025

  
  

  Father	George Henry Hickson,   b. 19 Nov 1886, Wabaushene, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 3 Mar 1965, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 78 years)
  Mother	Theresa Wilhelmina Rellinger,   b. 19 Oct 1885, Maryhill (New Germany) Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario ,   d. 10 Feb 1948, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 62 years)
  Married	25 Feb 1908	Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [2]
  Family ID	F18678	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Marion H. Potworka,   b. 1909,   d. 1997  (Age 88 years)
  Children	1. Mary Ann Hickson,   b. 12 Jul 1935, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 30 Jun 1936, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 0 years)   2. Larry Hickson,   b. 8 Aug 1938, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 16 Apr 1953, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 14 years)   3. Mary Jane Hickson,   b. 28 Jun 1940, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 28 Oct 1940, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 0 years)
  Last Modified	29 Jan 2025
  Family ID	F61559	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos

  Hickson,GeorgeAlfred-002-KitchenerPublicLibrary-Enhanced.jpg Geoge Alfred Hickson - Kitchener Public Library

  
  

• Notes

  Sgt. Hickson Blasted Nazis Casino Was Object Of His Attack; Two Men War Prisoners Sept. 18, 1942 Two Twin City men are listed as prisoners of war and one is mentioned especially for bravery in today's Dieppe news. Prisoners of war are: Lieut. Arthur Breihaupt, Calgary Tank Regiment. Pte. Alonzo Grant, Central Ontario Regiment The hero, who returned safely to England, is Lance-Sgt. George E. Hickson of the 7th Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers. News of Lieut. Breithaupt's and Pte. Grant's capture came through the International Red Cross. STILL AWAITING WORD No further word has been received concerning five other Twin City men who saw action in the big raid and have been officially reported as missing. They are Sgt. Harry Basil, Pte. George Frederick Hoch, Cpl. George Teasdale, Pte. William John Irven and Pte. Carl Joseph Fuja. Sgt. Hickson and Lieut.-Col. C. C. I. Merritt, the latter of Belleville, officer commanding the South Saskatchewan Regiment, who is missing, are mentioned jointly in the statement from the Defence Department at Ottawa. It reads: "Where all were brave, it is diffcult and perhaps invidious to quote individual cases of gallantry," said the department, "but two such instances are mentioned here merely as examples of the manner in which Canadian officers and men maintained the traditions of the Canadian army and the honor of their country." When Col. Merritt's battalion was held up by fire at a bridge on which many men had fallen, he walked back and forth across the structure waving his helmet and calling, "See, there is no danger here." Then he led his men across and cleared enemy positions on the other side. BLASTED CASINO "He led detachments against strong road blocks, personally disposed of a sniper and led parties against machine-gun posts. When last seen he was gathering weapons and organizing a defensive position to cover the withdrawal of the last parties of his unit. "Sgt. Hickson was assigned to a demolition job in the town and, unable to go to it directly, attached himself to an infantry platoon. When the platoon's officer and senior non- commissioned officers were put out of action, he took command and led it to the Casino which he entered by blasting a hole through a wall. "With another charge he blew in the steel door of a concrete gun emplacement inside the Casino and killed the gun crew. He destroyed a six-inch naval gun and two machine guns, then reorganized the rest of the platoon and led them against heavy opposition into the town. He was one of the last men evacuated from the beach." PATRIOTIC FAMILY Sgt. Hickson is a member of a patriotic family. His father, George H. Hickson of 42 Troy Street served for three years in the First Great War. Four sons in the family are in the armed forces while the other is waiting for his 18th birthday to come so he too can enlist. Those on active service besides Sgt. George are Flight-Sgt. Harry of the R.C.A.F., who is somewhere in Alaska; Pte. Gordon who is on the Military Hospital staff at Shelburne, Nova Scotia and expects to be transferred shortly to the Irish Guards Regiment; Pte. Robert who. went overseas with the Highland Light Infantry two years ago, and Gerald, 17, who has sought enlistment in both the navy and the air force and will go to the branch of the service that calls him first. Gerald is a member of the 24th Field Ambulance (Reserve). STUDIED COMMANDO WORK Sgt. George enlisted in 1940 after serving seven years with the Scots Fusiliers of Canada (Reserve) and gaining much experience as a sergeant-instructor. He joined the Royal Canadian Engineers and, according to letters received by his wife, who lives at 111 Victoria South, and his parents, he has studied commando work for the past four months. His father received. a letter two months ago stating that he "was back in England again" but none of the family has received word as to where he had been. The Hicksons heard from George by postcard yesterday. He thanked his young brother Gerald for some "cigs" and promised to write as much as possible very soon. (over) "George is a modest boy, rather quiet. If he was back row, you would have a hard job getting him to talk about himself," his father, George H. Hickson, told a Record. reporter today while his wife searched the house for pictures of the boys. ________________ Helped Take 26 Prisoners Now Full Sergeant, Kitchener Soldier Tells of Big Raid - Sept 29, 1942 By WILLIAM STEWART SOMEWHERE IN ENGLAND. Sept. 29.-(CP) "Come to think of it now - Dieppe was a lot of fun," says Sgt. George Hickson in the manner of a man who derives modest satisfaction from a difficult job well done. Hickson was a lance-sergeant when he went to Dieppe with a picked group from the 7th Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers. He's a full sergeant now with his third stripe only a bare six inches above two sets of Nazi bullet holes in the left sleeve of his battledress. He's not wearing the trousers that had the right knee ripped by another bullet. BRAND NEW UNIFORM "They just about ruined my uniform, and it was brand new too," says the 28-year-old soldier from Kitchener, Ont. "But the experience of Dieppe was worth months of training, for me at least, and probably the rest of the boys." (Canadian National Defence headquarters, in a statement released by Defence Minister Ralston on Sept. 18, mentioned Sgt. Hickson, along with Lieut.-Col. C. C. I. Merritt of Vancouver, as two examples of the "manner in which Canadian officers and men maintained the traditions of the Canadian army and the honor of their country." Col. Merritt has been reported a prisoner of war.) Hickson, who is married and the father of two small sons and has four brothers in the Canadian forces, arrived in Britain in June, 1940. He went through combined operations training before the Dieppe operation and was given a special mission to accomplish in the French town when the Canadians struck. LED PARTY OF SIX He would be satisfied to describe his part in the operation with one sentence: "The 6½ hours seemed to take only about an hour." But from persistent questions it develops that he led a party made up of a lance-corporal and five sappers who were to be covered by a party of infantrymen while their assignment was carried out. Three members of Hickson's party and a number of the covering party were cut down by German fire as they landed from an assault craft on the beach in front of Dieppe's casino. They raced through barbed wire half-way up the beach, crouched for a moment behind a seawall two feet high at that spot and then broke through a gap that had been made in barbed wire above the seawall by troops from the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry preceding them. "A pillbox sitting on the esplanade was in our way to the casino and we had to wipe it out with grenades," says Hickson. LONDON OFFICER HURT Lieut. John Webster of London, Ont., who commanded the infantrymen protecting the party of engineers, was wounded and Hickson took charge. Hickson says when his party got inside the casino they found Canadians and other units were racing about knocking out Germans and taking prisoners, "We took 26 prisoners," says Hickson. "Some of them gave up easily, but one particularly fought like hell. He had a little spot in a doorway surrounded by sandbags and he kept rolling grenades at us across the floor. "The grenades looked something like tops and the Germans made them roll around us in a semi- circle from behind the sand bags. "Every time one went off it lifted us about a foot off the floor." DRAW OUT BAYONETS "The German was well-concealed all this time and safe from our fire so cold steel was the only solution. We got our bayonets out but he saw them and that was enough-out he came," Hickson said at no time during the operation did he see any Nazi use a bayonet of course, if they had we would have cleaned them up with ours." After helping get the rest of the Germans in the casino out of the way, the four remaining members of the little engineers party split up. The lance-corporal-ignoring a wounded foot-took one sapper with him while Hickson took the other and they set out from the casino with a covering party now made up of men of various infantry units. "They had been at work in the casino and I picked them up as they came along." explains Hickson. "They made a formidable little platoon. AMMUNITION GETS LOW "We scouted the edge of the casino and worked our way into town about two blocks almost to the cathedral. We had to stop because our ammunition was getting low and the town was full of snipers. "But we destroyed telephone lines and electric cables as we went along to damage their communications as much as we could." Hickson says that while his party was on its way back to the casino, he heard a signal for the reembarkation. In the casino his party and other Canadians placed their packs in a pile with an explosive charge and a time fuse. They boarded, an assault craft, bailed with their helmets when it started to sink and then a number transferred to another craft which came along. "We manned the guns for a while as our craft went about to others to help get wounded to destroyers. Another fellow and I volunteered to accompany a party returning to the beach to pick up wounded but were refused permission." On the way home aboard a destroyer, Hickson says Nazi aircraft machine-gunned and bombed them wounding a number more. "I think the raid taught us a lot things that can't be learned by just training," says Hickson reflectively. "I hope I get another one." ________________________

  
  

• Sources

  [S3231] Find A Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/209356568. [S4] Vit - ON - Marriage Registration. George Hickson Born: Wabaushene Ont Age: 21 Father: Alfred Hickson Mother: Eliz Howe Born: abt 1887 Spouse: Theresa Rellinger Age: 22 born: New Germany Father: George Rellinger Mother: Mary Beck married 25 Feb 1908, Berlin

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 24 Jul 1914 - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Buried - - Woodland Cem., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth