George Alfred Hickson was born in Kitchener, Ontario in 1915 and lived there most of his life. He was the oldest of five brothers and three sisters. He was educated at St. Mary’s School and the Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate. He was interested in sport and played for one of the collegiate rugby teams. After graduating from school, he was employed at intervals by the Bell Telephone Company where his father is a foreman, and later, he was permanently employed as a linesman by the county hydro company.
George joined the The Scots Fusiliers of Canada, a local reserve unit, in 1932 and rose to the position of Company Sergeant Major of A Company. He was married in 1935 and he and his wife Marion had two boys, George and Larry, when he enlisted.He enlisted in London, Ontario on 9 January 1940. He was assigned to the Royal Canadian Engineers, possibly based on his pre-war occupational experience. Two more children were born after the war.
George trained for a short time in Canada and arrived in the the UK in June 1940 with the 7th Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers, a unit largely recruited in southern Ontario. George wrote home many times describing the intensity of his Commando Training in Scotland. His family was branded as 'very patriotic' considering that his George's father had served three years during the First World War and all five of his brothers served in army or air force during the Second War. One brother, Robert, was killed in Normandy in July 1944 serving with the Highland Light Infantry in the 3rd Canadian Division.
George led one of the assault parties during the attack on Dieppe and was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. Along with Lt-Col Cecil Merritt, VC, another hero of Dieppe, the Minister of Defence, James Ralston cited George as an example of the gallantry shown by Canadian soldiers at Dieppe. See: L/Sgt George Alfred Hickson, 7th Fd Coy, Distinguished Conduct Medal
North Africa
After returning from Dieppe, Sgt George Hickson was among many officers and senior NCOs selected to serve in the 8th Army in North Africa. On 7 April 1943, the 8th Army launched an attack in the area of Medjez el Bab, in Northern Tunisia and drove the Axis forces back between four and five miles. On the second day of the battle, the attackers were within 27 air miles of Tunis and continuing to move forward. Under a massive artillery barrage, a squadron of infantry tanks attempted to close on Reece Ridge. The tank crews were up against more than just the enemy. The weather was wet and windy and the ground over which moved was extremely difficult with clods of adhesive Tunisian gumbo clinging to tank tracks and the boots of supporting infantry. When they were stopped by a minefield, the enemy reacted with artillery, antitank and blankets of mortar fire. Without hesitation, moments into the barrage, Sgt Hickson moved up from the rear with a small detachment of sappers and led them slowly, cautiously and with complete confidence, into the minefield.
The sappers went to work immediately and under George's cool and easy direction, they removed one hundred mines and cleared a strip 40 yards wide. The tanks and infantry resumed their advance and captured the Recce Ridge. Sgt Hickson was awarded the Military Medal for his bravery. In part, the citation reads, with the award, “It was undoubtedly due to the coolness and efficiency of the NCO that the task was completed.”
A contemporary newspaper article entitled 'How do You Win a Medal', answered the question succinctly:
"How do you win a medal? Well, if you’re 28 years old, with a wife and two kids back in Kitchener to fight for, if you’ve drilled at the Kitchener armories for eight years before the war started, and served with the Canadian Army for another two and a half, and if you’ve got what George Hickson showed, you don’t have to ask anybody."
Sgt George Hickson, DCM, MM, was the first Canadian soldier to win two medals for bravery in the Second World War. In 1944, he was commissioned and posted to the 3rd Field Company in Italy.
George returned and continued in his former job until he retired. He died at the Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay, Ontario on 15 August 1979.
On the 8th of April 1943 during an attack on Recce Ridge in the area of Medjez el Bab a squadron of infantry tanks was held up owing to the presence of an enemy mine field. Sergeant Hickson promptly organized a detachment of Royal Engineers to clear a gap so that the tanks could advance. Although the section of the mine field was under constant shell and mortar fire this Non-Commissioned Officer moved freely and by his personal example and encouragement to his men was responsible for the clearing of a gap 40 yards wide by lifting over 100 mines in under an hour. It was undoubtedly due to the coolness and efficiency of this Non-Commissioned Officer that the task was completed and the tanks enabled to pass through the minefield and assist the infantry in the capture of the final objective.