A couple of days ago, I emailed Crown Agents, asking if they had any details of my grandfather, Henry Hedges, who had worked for them in Nigera and Sierra Leone.
I had a nice email back today from the company secretary of Crown Agents.
Whilst we may have recruited Mr. Hedges, this would have been on behalf of the respective colonial administrations at the time and he would not have been an employee of Crown Agents, but of the administrations in Nigeria and Sierra Leone. We would not therefore hold any of his records and indeed our records of such recruitment exercises have long been destroyed. I have searched through our Colonial Office staff lists for the periods in question but unfortunately your grandfather’s name does not appear (this may be due to the fact that the staff lists generally relate to the more senior colonial administrators of the day).
She went on to suggest that as there was a pension involved it might be worth contacting the Department for International Development Pensions Department to see if they had details of his posting on their files.
So, I wasn’t in luck from the point of finding him, but I do have another possible lead to follow. I really appreciate the time she took to check their records. At least I know there’s nothing there now.
I’ve contacted the Department for International Development, and shall have to hope that they have something on record.