1st Battalion The Hertfordshire Regiment
- British Empire Medal (for services to the Hertfordshire Regiment)
- 1939 – 1945 Star
- Italy Star
- Defence Medal
- War Medal 1939-1945 with oak leaf clasp for Mention in Despatches
- General Service Medal with Palestine 1945-1948 bar
- Imperial Service Medal
- Territorial Efficiency Medal with two bars (each bar denotes 12 years of continuous service)
RQMS James “Jimmy” Crane grew up in Ware and joined the Hertfordshire Regiment Territorials before the Second World War. He served with the 1st Battalion in Gibraltar, Italy (where his actions merited a Mention in Despatches) and Palestine. Jimmy’s brother George was killed in Italy in 1944 shortly after transferring to the Hertfordshire Regiment from the Beds & Herts.
After the war, Jimmy returned to his first love – football, making 365 appearances for Ware Football Club, of which he was a lifetime member as well as periods as skipper, manager and trustee. Jimmy ran a market garden and he and his wife Ruth were keen horticulturalists, exhibiting prize winning vegetables across the County. A member of Ware Horticultural Society for 40 years, eventually the Jimmy Crane Cup was introduced in the society’s annual competition.
Jimmy remained in the Hertfordshire Regiment as a reservist and was secretary of the Regimental Association, giving over thirty years of his life in service to the Regiment. He was awarded the British Empire Medal for this service in 1986, a year before his death, aged 85.
