Hingham Medal of Honor Winner Could Be Recognized With Memorial

The Hingham Selectmen are in the works of forming a committee to create a memorial for Hingham’s only Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Seaman Herbert Lewis Foss.

The Selectmen said they would like to use the former Hingham Mobil Station as the location for the memorial.

According to the Hingham Town Website, Foss served in the US Navy and fought in the Spanish American War. During the war, in May of 1898, Foss and his shipmates snared the communications cable off the coast of northwest Cuba.  With great difficulty while under intense enemy fire the men pulled the cable up over the bow of their ship and proceeded to sever it.  Since many of his shipmates were wounded or killed in the process, Foss finished the job by cutting the cable with a hacksaw and was later honored for his acts of braveness.

Foss has been honored in Hingham for the past six years thanks to Michael Cunningham, the former Hingham Veterans’ services director . Cunningham decided that the town should hold a Memorial Celebration each year on the anniversary of Foss’s birthday, October 12, 1871.

At last Hingham Representative Garrett Bradley (D-Hingham) and State Senator Robert Hedlund (R-Weymouth) each honored Foss’s granddaughter Harriet Kirkpatrick and great great grandson Dan MacKay, each of Weymouth.

At several Hingham events, Bradley has spoke strongly in favor of building a memorial in Hingham for Foss.

 “I personally have a few rules that I live by and one of them is to properly honor the greatest among us,” Bradley said at a memorial for Foss back in October. “It is long overdue to my home town of Hingham to recognize Seaman Foss and name a town structure in his honor.”

Hingham State Senator Robert Hedlund (R-Weymouth) has agreed with Bradley and said that in other towns, landmarks and schools are named after their Medal of Honor Winners and Hingham should do the same.

“I hope what we do today will lead to further recognition from the town of Hingham so that we can elevate the memory of Herbert Foss here in Hingham to the level that it should be,” Hedlund said in October.

The Selectmen will continue to address the issue at future meetings.