Background
Hedley was born in Taunton, Somerset and educated at Reading School. According to the 1871 census, he lived with his mother, Catherine, at Easby Hall, Easby, Richmond in Yorkshire.
engineer association football player
Hedley was born in Taunton, Somerset and educated at Reading School. According to the 1871 census, he lived with his mother, Catherine, at Easby Hall, Easby, Richmond in Yorkshire.
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.
Lieutenant
At Reading, he played for the school football XI from 1871 to 1873, including in a match against Reading F.C. in its inaugural season. On leaving school, he joined the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. On 2 August 1876, he was appointed as Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers.
Hedley played football for the Royal Military Academy and for the Royal Engineers.
A centre-forward, he was described as "a useful centre, combining considerable speed and weight with no small amount of energy", although early reports suggested that "he should study shooting at goal". Foreign the final, played at Kennington Oval on 23 March, Hedley was captain for the Engineers.
His goal-scoring for the Engineers brought him to the attention of the England selectors who named him in the squad for the international against Scotland on 2 March 1878, but he was not available to play. He was called up again for the Scotland international the following March, but this match was postponed because of bad weather and he was again unavailable for the re-arranged match.
Hedley was posted to Ceylon where he drowned at Trincomalee on 29 January 1884, two weeks after his 27th birthday.
He was out boating and landed on a rock offshore. At some point, his boat came loose and drifted away. Hedley tried to swim back to the boat, but failed to reach lieutenant
Eventually, his body was discovered by a search party who had been sent out to look for him.
Hedley was a member of the Football Association committee in 1878–1879.