He was also a gifted amateur sportsman who played first-class cricket for several County Championship sides and competed to a high level in rackets and golf.

This work was interrupted by service in South Africa throughout the Second Boer War, and from 1906 to 1908 by his appointment as an advisor to the Survey of India.

[1][2] His father, Robert, had served as a captain in the British Army and was a Poor Law Inspector at the time of Hedley's birth.

[1][4] On leaving school, Hedley entered the Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich in March 1883.

[11] One of the biggest problems facing the British was the lack of suitable maps, so his surveying experience was in demand.

[16] On 9 July 1901 he left Port Natal on the transport SS City of Cambridge which was due to arrive at Southampton on 3 August.

Although Hedley faced some resistance to the proposals he made, he was ultimately successful in achieving reform[10] and the Geodetic & Research Branch of the Survey of India still holds in its archives, Notes on the organization, methods and process of the photo-litho office, Calcutta by Major W. C.

[20] He returned to the United Kingdom, and the Ordnance Survey, in 1908, now concentrating on new colour printing techniques.

Hedley succeeded Charles Close, who had been appointed Director General of the Ordnance Survey.

Its remit also extended to advising government departments on geographical matters, particularly relating to international boundaries.

[24] In preparation for a possible war in Europe, Hedley directed that maps of France and Flanders be produced and stock-piled and that survey work should be carried out in strategically important locations such as Palestine and the Balkans.

[1][36] He played for I Zingari against the Gentlemen of England three years running from 1888 as part of the Scarborough Festival and for Marylebone Cricket Club,[34] before becoming a regular in the Somerset side in 1892.

[1] In 1905 Hedley, then working at Southampton for the Ordnance Survey, joined Hampshire, playing three times for the county during the season before serving in India from 1906.

Her father, James Fellowes, was a colonel in the RE who had worked at the Ordnance Survey and played first-class cricket for Kent in the 1870s.