Valor Friday
Tony Hudgell BEM
Heroes come in all shapes and sizes and from all walks of life. This week’s subject is a bit different than most I cover. Tony Hudgell will never serve his country in uniform, as most of my subjects have. He’s found an amazing way to turn a life that started in tragedy into a way to help others.
In the overly complicated British Honours system, twice a year (New Years and the monarch’s birthday traditionally) the King presents a list of recipients of the country’s highest awards and decorations. While many awards are made to men and women in uniform (military, law enforcement, and other civil services), many are also made to British (and occasionally non-British honorary awards) civilian subjects. The most visible of these are knighthoods and damehoods given to many celebrities for their services to the arts or humanitarian efforts. Such awards are why Judy Dench is known as Dame Judy and Patrick Stewart as Sir Patrick.
While being made a knight bachelor (as Sir Patrick is) or being made a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (as Dame Judy is) are towards the upper end of the honors bestowed, many lower level awards are also made. Among those is an award known as the British Empire Medal, which Tony Hudgell has been given in this year’s New Years Honours.
The British Empire Medal (BEM) ranks above the King’s Police Medal (typically received by senior ranking members of the police service) and just below the Royal Victorian Medal (awarded for personal services to the sovereign). The BEM is an award to British subjects for meritorious services. It comes with the post-nominal letters BEM to remind everyone that the King gave you an honor. If I were to compare it to an American military award it would be similar in prestige to a Meritorious Service Medal. Not something typically awarded to a child.
On that topic, Hudgell is the youngest recipient of the BEM at just nine years old. He’s also the youngest person ever to receive an honor in the New Years Honours.
Hudgell was known as Anthony Smith at birth. His parents were horrible, terrible people. At just 41 days old, the newborn boy, living in an apartment described as “filthy”, was abused by his parents so severely, that both his legs would end up being amputated. He’s been assaulted so badly that he had dislocated joints, multiple broken bones, and blunt force traume to the face. The poor kid was left in this injured state for 10 days before his discovery. This led to organ failure, toxic shock, and sepsis.
Once treated at the hospital, his injuries were such that he was rendered permanently deaf in one ear. He had eight broken bones. Over the next few years, his agony would only continue. He had to have 23 surgeries and eight blood transfusions. Unable to fix his legs, at the age of three, both were amputated at the knees. One of his hips is permanently dislocated.
Thankfully, the boy’s parents were both convicted for their horrendous crimes. Both were sentenced to 10 years (the maximum allowed) in 2018. His mother was released in February 2023, while his father’s bid to be released similarly early was rejected. He’s set to serve the entirety of his sentence, not being released until 2027. The boy who had survived the horrible injuries was adopted by Mark and Paula Hudgell of Kings Hill in Kent. They renamed him Tony Hudgell.
In 2020, during the COVID Pandemic, the five-year old Tony saw the story of Captain Sir Thomas Moore. We talked about him at the time. You’ll recall he’s the 99 year old pensioner and WWII British Army veteran who began walking laps in his garden to raise money for the National Health Service. His goal of raising £1,000 by his 100th birthday was absolutely smashed. He brought in £32 million (almost $40 million) for the NHS, and was knighted by the Queen in response.
Tony was inspired by Captain Tom. In June 2020, Hudgell started a charity drive of his own. He walked 10km on his prosthetic legs (picture above), and like Captain Tom, brought in a lot of money. He raised £1.8 million for the NHS children’s hospital.
With the help of his adopted mom Paula Hudgell, Tony is the namesake for the Tony Hudgell Foundation. The foundation seeks to improve the lives of the child victims of physical and emotional abuse. Paula was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours. An OBE ranks just above the BEM in award prestige.
In addition to his new BEM, Tony was awarded a Points of Light UK award in September 2020. In a 2022 reception at 10 Downing Street (the British equivalent of the White House), Tony was recognized by Prime Minister Boris Johnson for his fundraising prowess. He also received a Pride of Britain Award from television broadcaster ITV, and a British Citizen Youth Award from the House of Lords.
In 2022, in response to his horrendous abuse case, “Tony’s Law” was passed, increasing penalties for child abuse. It raised the maximum penalty for abusing a kid to death from a paltry 14 years to life imprisonment. Causing serious harm to a child is now punishable by up to 14 years in prison, up from the 10 years that Tony’s birth parents received. You ask me, that’s still not nearly enough.
On the occasion of the announcement of Tony’s BEM, his mother Paula said Tony was “proud and very excited.” She said, “It’s nice as he does not want any other child to suffer like he did.” She’s understandably pleased with the young man she’s raising, adding, “I am very proud of him and it’s a wonderful legacy for him.”
Category: UK and Commonwealth Awards, Valor
He may never wear the uniform, but he fits the mold. Service above self.🇬🇧
I was having trouble reading the article about him The sun was in my eyes.
Where’s the kleenex? Forget one, gimme the box.
Damned allergies.
God bless this young man, who has a heart bigger than most adults.
And you’re right, the birth parents weren’t punished near enough.
As much as I weep over little Tony, I would not shed one tear if something were to “happen” to the birth parents. Phuque ’em.
Shoring up that North Wall has done nothing to prevent the infiltration of Dust Bunnies and Onion Ninjas. Gotta be them, way yonder too early for pollen season.
A Salute to this young man and his adoptive parents. The sperm and egg donors? Donate their worthless carcasses to the feral hog feeding program.
Thanks, Mason.
Seems like he’s rejected the genes he was born with and embracing those of his true parents and others who seek to benefit society.
I’ve been dumping main line opener and drain cleaner in all of the plumbing and just got done snaking the main line. I think some of the chemicals got in my eyes while reading this…
Kid may be young but he’s done more in his few years than many adults accomplish in their entire lives. Well done there young man. Your courage is obvious and boundless.
He may be a small package, but this young man has the heart and soul of a true giant.
To heck with the missing legs, this kid is a LEADER.
Our second to the youngest, 14 YO now, came to us at 3 months old, deaf, blind and so mentally disabled that he would never be able to go to bathroom by himself. I was engaged in an FTX and call home to check on things. The wife says “call me back, in headed to get a baby”! I said “a baby what?” (Are usually come home to a new dog, cat, horse, pig, goat, bearded, dragon, crab,Etc.) my wife says “ I’ll explain later.”!
She was contacted by DHR and asked to take a three month old baby, they had been in Children’s Hospital for 2 1/2 months. Since he was two weeks old. From the day, he came home from being born, He had been shaken by the biological mother‘s boyfriend. She died two times in route to the hospital. Once on the way to the ER, and the second time on the helicopter flight to Children’s Hospital. I asked my wife “ are you sure about this, do you know you’re gonna have to give this baby back at some point?” She said yes, he needs our help. I should have known that her gears were working in a different direction. She ends up talking, the biological mother, into letting us adopt the baby, in order to get DHR out of her life. As soon as the documents were signed, the young man regained his hearing. About a year later, he regained some sight. While he is still legally blind, he has 70/100 vision in one eye in about 3100 and the other. He is not as advanced as other kids in his age group, But he absolutely can’t take care of himself. He is a very loving young man and I am proud to call him my son.
Can**** HE CAN take care of himself!!!!!
I Fn hate autocorrect!
As the Bard said, ” a little body with a mighty heart.”
What an amazing little man!
His POS bio ‘ birthing people ‘( can’t call them parents) are woodchipper fodder.
Bad ass.
I could use 10 like him.
Keep it up, my man.