A TIMSBURY resident and recipient of a British Empire Medal for services to education passed away peacefully at his home aged 94 on Sunday, October 13.

Edward ‘Ted’ Hudson was born in Leeds in 1929. He had a love of books from the age of four and when children reached seven, they were able to join the library. Ted’s first book from the library was Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe.

Ted received a Junior City Scholarship at the age of eleven at Leeds Boys Modern School but, in 1944 at 14, his father, a methodist lay preacher, died from tuberculosis, meaning he had to leave school instead of going on to university in order to work and help the family budget.

Ted’s love of books enabled him to work as an assistant librarian at Leeds Central Library with the first weeks’ pay of £1.9s.6d.

After several library exams to continue in the Leeds Commercial and Technical Library, this all came to a temporary halt in January 1948 when he took up National Service.

By May 1948, he was posted to RAF Changi in Singapore, arriving on the troopship HMS Dilwara. While there, he was put in charge of broadcasting to entertain and inform personnel on the base and was also in charge of library station in RAF Tengah.

It was here Ted had a pivotal moment which played a vital role in his direction years ahead in the form of a moral leadership course on the Island of Blakang Mati, helped by his Christian upbringing. He was demobbed in 1950, and as women had taken over senior library positions, he searched for a job to support his future wife, Ena, who became Ted’s support, centre of the family and secretary to Bibles for Children.

Ted managed Bookland & Company in Chester for 16 years after which he was ready for a new challenge. This came in a format of library binding at Cedric Chivers in Bath where his inspirational ideas created books on audio tape. In Chester he became a methodist lay preacher and continued in the Methodist Norton Circuit, with South Road Methodist Timsbury Church being his main place of worship.

By 1981 he opened his own Christian bookshop, Good News Media, selling antiquarian books, with a mail order catalogue of some 3,000 titles, CDs and tapes, and eventually new books and another shop, selling music LPs and CDs and sheet music. Over the years Ted has served 70 local churches and many schools in and around Bath.

After 14 years, Ted sold Good News Media to the Society Promoting Christian Knowledge Bookstore, in order to research into the History and Transmission of the English Bible before 1611. By 1997 Ted created a new charity, Bibles for Children, supplying infant and junior children in schools with their own free hardback picture and Good News Bible, and to date in 2024, in its 27th year, has served more than 710,600 Bibles in more than 2,500 schools across the country.

Children in Wales are supplied them in their own Welsh language. The first ever presentation was at St Mary’s School in Timsbury where each child had their name written inside. Many will remember receiving such a gift and the Bibles for Children Charity will continue by a dedicated team of trustees and the numerous supporters of the charity.

For Ted’s work for services to education with Bibles for Children he received the British Empire Medal in 2018 from Lord Lieutenant Annie Maw, in Taunton. Ted was very much a family man having six grandchildren and two great grandchildren. He will be sadly missed and loved by his wife of 71 years, Ena, and families of Sharn, Melanie and Darren and many friends.