Flight Sergeant 1063543 Bernard Eric Adams

458 Sqdn., Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Died on 5th August 1943, Age 24.

Commemorated Malta Memorial, panel 7, column 1.

Bernard Adams was born in Loughborough on 18th August 1915 to parents Jack Adams and Eliza (née Soden). He had a sister, Hilda, and a brother, John. His father was a builder and the family lived a 1 Milton Street, Knightthorpe.

Bernard attended Loughborough Grammar School from 1925 to 1930. Having an August birthday, he was one of the youngest in his year and this hampered him a little, although his report conceded ‘for his age he has done well’.

After matriculation he worked in Loughborough Library. In 1937 he married Winifred Joan Scott and the 1939 Register records the couple living in Audenshaw, Manchester, where Bernard worked as a librarian.

In 1943 Bernard’s squadron was based in Tunisia. He flew in a Wellington Xi bomber. He was killed in action when his aircraft suffered engine failure to the east of Sardinia over the Tyrrhenian Sea during a shipping recce. One of the crew survived eight days in a dinghy but Bernard died on 5th August, 1943.

Private 14703637  Wilfred Derek Adkin

4th Bn., Wiltshire Regiment

Died on 18th February 1945,  Aged 19.

Buried Reichswald Forest War Cemetery 5. A. 14.                                                                                   

Wilfred Derek Adkin (sometimes known simply as Derek), was born in 1926 to Mary (née Robbins) and Frederick Adkin, and lived at 130 Station Street, Loughborough. After school he worked at Towles Ltd.

Wilfred joined the Army in 1944 and served with the Expeditionary Forces in Western Europe. His battalion fought in the Battle of Odon, attempting to seize German-held Caen in the early stages of Operation Overlord. They went on to fight in the Battle of Arnhem. In late 1944 the Wiltshires were involved in attempts to break through the Siegfried Line alongside their American allies.

Wilfred was killed in action on 18th February 1945.

B. Allwood

Pilot Officer 46708  Peter Vincent Barthel

35 Sqdn., Royal Air Force

Died on 9th March 1942, Aged 22

Commemorated Runnymede Memorial

Peter Vincent Barthel was born in Wandsworth, London, in April 1919, to father Albert Gustav Vincent Barthel and Eva Agnes (née Bigwood). He was one of triplets. His brother David died at or soon after birth, while Paul Melville survived to adulthood. Their sister Joan was born a year later.

In 1921 the family was living in London with Eva’s parents. Gustav was Assistant Secretary in Genatosan, a chemicals company. They later moved to Loughborough and took up residence in The Glebe House, Forest Road. This is a substantial property (it is now Listed) so the Barthels must have been quite well-off.

Peter was a pupil at Loughborough Grammar School from 1928 to 1930, enrolling when he was just 9. He struggled in his second year and left to go to Chard School in Somerset.

Peter joined the RAF, possibly when war was looming. He was not living at home in 1939. In 1941 he became a Leading Aircraftsman. By 1942 he was based at Linton-on-Ouse in Yorkshire, flying Halifax aircraft in Bomber Command.

RAF records state that Peter Barthel was believed to have crashed Into the North Sea about 30 miles off Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire, when returning from a raid on Essen.

Lance Corporal 4857068  Henry James Beasley

1/5th Bn., Leicestershire Regiment

Died on 23rd March 1942, Aged 23

Buried Krakow Rakowicki Cemetery, 4. C 3.

Henry James Beasley, known as Harry, was born in Shelthorpe, Loughborough in 1919, to parents Frederick, a colliery worker, and Teresa Winifred (née Simpkin). In 1921 the family, which now included months old Tom, were living with grandfather William Beasley in Coalville.

Harry worked at hosiery manufacturer William Cottons in Loughborough, and and served in the Leicestershire Territorials for nine years. During the war he served in the Leicestershire Regiment. In 1942 he was captured in Norway and became a prisoner of war in Stalag VIIIB, in Cracow (now Poland). He wrote to his parents, saying he was well, and received parcels, including cigarettes from the Mayor’s Fund..

After two years as a prisoner, Harry died following an accident while on a working party. It is not clear what happened. However, his mother received a letter from prison chaplain John Berry. The letter read: " I am the Catholic priest working in this camp. I am very sorry to have to send you some sad news of your son, Harry. He was out on a working party and had an accident. He was taken to a hospital run by some nuns, who took every care possible, but in spite of all their efforts, he died after about an hour, March 23rd. You will be comforted to hear that the nuns got a priest in time and he received Absolution, Extreme Unction and the Pope's Blessing for the Dying. I myself conducted the burial at a military funeral and full Requiem Mass for your boy. The Reverend Mother of the Convent told me all the details. I shall say another Requiem Mass for Harry and also a Mass for you and your family that God may comfort you in your sadness. If possible I shall try to visit you when I get home to England and I shall remember you and yours in my Mass each day and ask God to give you strength to bear your grief. I shall ask the men too for their prayers at Mass. May God ever love and comfort you and yours."

Private 4857112 Herbert Beck

6th Bn., Green Howards (Yorkshire Regiment)

Died on  21st June 1944, Aged 29.

Buried Bayeux War Cemetery, XXIX. H. 2.

G. Beech

Pilot Officer 40664  John Keith Bennett

49 Sqdn, Royal Air Force

Died on 25 May 1940, Aged 20

Buried Adegem Canadian Cemetery, n. III.AB.8.

John Keith Bennett was born 1919 in Loughborough, the son of John Bennett and Beatrice (née Belton). John had a twin sister, Dorothy, who died in 1938. In 1921 the family lived in Middleton Place, Loughborough, and John Bennett senior was a bank clerk.

Young John Bennett was educated at Loughborough Grammar School from 1929 to 1937. His progress there was rather patchy with ‘could do better’ remarks on his reports, but he achieved his School Certificate at 17. He was a popular boy with many friends in Loughborough

John joined the RAF at the age of 18, and was commissioned and posted to a bomber squadron in 1938. He took part in the attack on Kiel on the opening day of the war and afterwards performed in numerous raids mission over Germany and Norway.

In 1940 he was serving with Bomber Command based at Scampton, Lincolnshire. He was shot down by flak off the Belgian coast during a raid on targets between Krefeld and Aachen. However, it wasn’t until February 1941 that his name appeared on an Air Ministry casualty list, when he was said to be presumed killed in action after having been missing during operations over the Ruhr district since the end of May 1940.

Captain 111867 Donovan Vernon Craigie Bentley

Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers

Died on 24th May 1943, Aged 25

Buried Heliopolis War Cemetery Egypt, 3. D. 33.

Donovan Vernon Craigie Bentley was born in 1918 in Havant, Hampshire. His parents were Clifford and Gladys Bentley, and in 1921 they were living with Clifford Bentley senior at 2 Stuart Street, Leicester. He was head of the household and a public works contractor. Also in the household was 10-year-old John Bentley, whose mother was listed as dead; he would have been Vernon’s cousin. There was also a live-in servant, Maud Abbot.

Known as Vernon, he was educated at Loughborough Grammar School from 1926 to 1934, where he excelled, and then at Loughborough College, where he gained his diploma as an electrical engineer. He was a graduate member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.

By the time of his death, his parents had moved to 77 Frederick Street, Loughborough. Clifford Bentley was the chief accountant at Loughborough College.

On 22nd December 1939 Vernon Bentley was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, and over the next two years served in France and the Middle East. He was appointed Captain to the Deputy Assistant Director Mechanical Engineers, Middle East in December 1942, and died on 24th May 1943.

Private 4856230  Alfred Mons Billings

1st Bn., Leicestershire Regiment

Died on 7th September 1944, Aged 29.

Buried Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Coll. grave 3. D. 2-20.

Alfred Mons Billings was born in Newcastle upon Tyne on 1st February 1914. His siblings were Isaac Martin and Elinor. After the children’s father died his mother Annie had remarried, to William Worrall, a boilermaker who had been born in Loughborough, and in 1921 the family were living in Morrison Street, Newcastle. Alfred was then six and the youngest. His middle name suggests that his father had been killed at the Battle of Mons in 1914, making his mother a war widow.

It's not clear when the family relocated to Loughborough, but before WW2 Alfred and his brother Isaac were both employed at Tucker’s Brickyard.

Alfred enlisted in the Leicestershire Regiment in May 1931; he was just 17. Subsequently he served in India, Waziristan (Pakistan) and then in the Malayan campaign of 1941-42. It was during this operation that he was taken prisoner by the Japanese and sent to the No 1 Thailand Camp. This was where thousands of POWs and forced labourers were put to work on building the Burma Railway. This camp was notorious for the brutal conditions these men endured; near-starvation, cruelty and disease were endemic.

On 7th September 1944 the Allies bombed the area of the camp, unaware that many Allied prisoners were held there. Around 100 men were killed in the raid, Alfred Billings amongst them. A report states that he suffered wounds at the waist, left lower thigh, and right arm from bomb splinters.

There is a memoir written by a survivor of that raid. “After the fires died down the camp was in darkness and it was not until some hours after the raid that the full extent of the destruction and loss of life became apparent. Around a hundred men had been killed and many more had sustained horrific injuries. The next day all the bodies were recovered and buried in a mass grave. It was a sad end for the men who had suffered for many months only to be killed by their own bombs. This incident caused a great deal of resentment among the men who could not believe that the Allied Command were unaware that a POW camp was located next to their targets.”

For Alfred Billings, aged 29, it was a brutal death after an equally brutal captivity. His brother Isaac was killed in action in Malaysia on 12th February 1942.

Private 4857545  Isaac Martin Billings

1st Bn., Leicestershire Regiment

Died on 12th February 1942, Aged 29.

Commemorated on the Singapore Memorial,column 65.

Isaac Martin Billings was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1911. His siblings were Alfred Mons and Elinor. After the children’s father died his mother Annie had remarried, to William Worrall, a boilermaker who had been born in Loughborough, and in 1921 the family were living in Morrison Street, Newcastle.

It's not clear when the family relocated to Loughborough, but before WW2 Isaac and his brother Alfred were both employed at Tucker’s Brickyard.

Isaac Billings (who probably used his middle name, Martin), like his older brother Alfred, enlisted in the Leicestershire Regiment, on 20th August 1934. In 1938 he served in India, and in the Malayan Campaign of 1941-42

Although a newspaper report of November 1942 says that both Isaac and Alfred had been taken prisoner by the Japanese, an Army casualty list states that Isaac was one of those missing, presumably killed in action.

His brother Alfred died as a POW in an air raid in the notorious Thailand No 1 Camp on 7th September 1944.

Fourth Engineer Officer   Harold Kenneth Bintcliffe

M.V. Empire Steel (Liverpool), Merchant Navy

Died on 24th March 1942, Aged 27.

Commemorated Tower Hill Memorial Panel 45.                                

Born in 1915, Harold Bintcliffe was the only son of Loughborough’s Chief Sanitary Inspector, also called Harold, and mother Caroline, who lived at 103 Nanpantan Road, Loughborough.

He was educated at Loughborough Grammar School from 1925 to 1929. His school reports were not good; he was criticised for being ‘stupid at times….no sense of responsibility…..lacks effort.” Perhaps finding the school too demanding, he left at 15 and went to Barrow Grammar School. Rather touchingly, his parents later instigated a prize for ‘the best and most popular boy in the school’ in his memory.

After school, Harold worked at Derby & Notts Electric Light Power Company. In 1939 he was living in Beeston, near Nottingham, at the home of John and Brenda Barber, presumably as a lodger. In late 1941 he married Gladys Telford.

In August 1941 the Leicester Chronicle ran a small article about him, saying that he had experienced “many thrilling adventures” since joining the Merchant Navy 14 months previously. In rather glib fashion, it describes those adventures as being bombed, torpedoed, mined and machine gunned.

In 1942 Harold was serving in the HMS Empire Steel as 4th Engineer Officer. The ship was a motor tanker and in March had set sail from Baton Rouge via Halifax to the UK, carrying 11,000 tonnes of aviation fuel and kerosene. Despite the menacing presence of U-boats in the North Atlantic, she was unescorted.

At 03.01 hours on 24th March, the ship was hit by two torpedoes fired from U-123. (The U-boat had spotted the zigzagging tanker about five hours earlier and had already launched one attack, which failed). Not surprisingly, given its cargo, the Empire Steel and the waters around it became a terrifying inferno. 40 minutes after the successful attack the U-boat fired nine rounds from the deck gun at the burning wreck which later capsized and sank northeast of Bermuda. 35 crew members, including Harold Bintcliffe, and four gunners, were lost. The master and seven survivors were later picked up by an American tug and taken to safety in Norfolk, Virginia, after five days in the lifeboat.

Lance Sergeant Ronald Birkin

Ronald Birkin was born in January 1920 to Frederick Birkin and Ellen (née Adcock). He had brothers, Fred, Horace, Paul and Eric. There were four sisters too: Edna, Lily, Margery and Eveline. Ronald attended Limehurst School.

In 1939 the family were living at 24 Great Central Road, Loughborough, and Ronald was a grocer’s assistant at Marsdens & Co in Market Place. Later he worked at the Ceylon Tea Co in the High Street. He became engaged to Muriel Melbourne, who came from Hathern.

The 6th Battalion Grenadier Guards, formed in October 1941, led the assault on the Monte Camino massif in the first battle of Monte Camino in November 1943 and suffered heavy casualties. It took part in the second battle of Monte Camino in December 1943 and in late January 1944 moved into the Minturno area. It remained there until early March, seeing mostly low-level but continuous fighting, until it was relieved by American units. During this period Ronald Birkin was wounded and died of his wounds a week later.

A childhood friend later wrote a tribute to Ronald. “I have known Ron since he was a schoolboy, so in my grief I feel I must write this. He was loved by everybody who knew him. His personality was great, his kindness and thoughtfulness for mankind was such that one does not find very often in one so young. He feared no man, but only God. Ron Birkin has died just as he has lived. I hoped that he would be spared, because of his goodness, but I suppose God knows best. The good always die young.”

F. W. Black

Sapper 1906498 Leslie Blyth

A Field Coy., Royal Engineers

Died on 12th June 1943. Aged 24.

Buried Hathern Cemetery B. Grave 4016.                                                                                         

Leslie Blyth was the the son of William Blyth, who was a farmer, and Edith Blyth (née Lunn), and was born in Gedney, Lincolnshire in 1919. His siblings included William, Edith, Arthur and Francis. The family later moved to Leicestershire.

Leslie joined the Royal Engineers some time before 1941, but died in a most unfortunate accident. He was in barracks in the Maidstone area, getting ready for a kit inspection. One of his fellow soldiers was cleaning his rifle and unfortunately a bullet was still in the chamber, and when the rifle was fired Leslie caught the full force of it and died.

Private S/10685163 George Edward Blythe

46 Base Supply Depot, Royal Army Service Corps

Died on 11th May 1943, Aged 19.

Buried Bone War Cemetery, Annaba, Algeria, IV. C. 12.

George Edward Blythe was born in Hull in July 1923 to James Blythe and Violet (née Owen). They were living there in 1939 but at the time of George’s death were recorded as living in Loughborough. Nothing more is known of George’s life and death in service but a description of Bone War Cemetery may offer a clue.

Allied troops made a series of landings on the Algerian coast in early November 1942. From there, they swept east into Tunisia, where the North African campaign came to an end in May 1943 with the surrender of the Axis forces.

Bone was occupied by Allied forces on 12 November 1942 and became important as a supply port, and for its airfield. The 70th General Hospital was there during the early months of 1943.

Serving in the RASC George Blythe may have been killed by an attack on the supply port or the airfield.

Serjeant T/108246 Ernest Dowell Gee Bosomworth 

Royal Army Service Corps

Died on 27th July 1943, Aged 24.

Buried Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, B3. B. 1.

Ernest Bosomworth was the only child of William and Sarah Bosomworth. They lived in Loughborough, where Ernest was born on 21st August 1918. At the time of the 1921 Census his father was a metal turner and had served in the Royal Flying Corps in WW1. The family lived at 1 Alfred Street, and by 1939 William Bosomworth was a foreman at the Brush works.  

Ernest attended Rendell Street School and later Loughborough Grammar School. After school he became a solicitor’s clerk with the firm of Messrs. Woolley, Beardsleys and Bosworth. He became Scoutmaster of All Saints Parish Church Scout Troop and went by the nickname ‘Skipper’.

He volunteered in September 1939, serving in the RASC. Ernest saw action firstly in France and then in the Malaya campaign, and was taken prisoner at the fall of Singapore in February 1942. His parents did not receive news of this until April 1943. The newspaper report said that his parents and friends would be ‘glad to hear’ the news, but of course they could not know what dreadful suffering their son and his fellow POWs were experiencing.

From prisoner of war records we can trace Sgt Bosomworth’s journey after capture. On 24th April 1943 he was transported on Train No 7, along with hundreds of other POWs, from Singapore. He would have been held there in the vast and horrific Changi camp.    

He ended up in No 2 Camp, Sonkurai, Thailand, where he was put to work on constructing the notorious and well-documented Burma railway. Ernest didn’t last long there. He died just three months later on 27th July, with ‘colitis’ recorded as cause of death. Colitis, which could have covered any kind of gastro-intestinal disorder, killed very many of the prisoners, and could have been caused by bad food, dirty water, parasites, or any aspect of the inhumane treatment the men underwent.

Ernest Bosomworth was just a few weeks short of his 25th birthday when he died.

Private 4857407 Alfred Thomas Bradbury

Royal Army Medical Corps

Died on 14th February 1942, Aged 28.

Commemorated Singapore Memorial, Column 105.

Alfred Bradbury was the son of farm labourer Howard Bradbury and Matilda (née Beale). They were a large family, with two girls and four boys besides Alfred. Alfred had been born in Tamworth in 1914/15 but by 1921 the Bradburys were living at Iving Bridge Farm, Loughborough.  

Little can be discovered about Alfred Bradbury’s service career. He was a private in the RAMC and served in the Malaya theatre of war. As he died on 14th February 1942, it’s likely he was killed in action during the fall of Singapore, which lasted from 8th to 15th February.

Driver T/63357 Eric Bradshaw

Royal Army Service Corps, 49 Gen. Transport Coy.

Died on 20th May 1940, Aged 42.

Commemorated Dunkirk Memorial.                                                                                      

Born around 1899, Eric Bradshaw’s parents were George, a labourer, and Elizabeth. His siblings were Archibald, Hilda and Frank. The family lived at Woodbine Cottage, Currington Street, Knightthorpe Rd, Loughborough.  

In 1921 Eric was employed at the Brush works as an engine fitter. Later, according to newspaper reports, he worked for the hosiery firm of Bradshaw and Sons as a lorry driver, and for Bradshaw the coal merchants. If this is correct, were these businesses run by family members?  

There is little detail about Eric Bradshaw’s service career except that he joined the RASC as a driver.

By then he was living at 31 Knightthorpe Road and was, according to contemporary reports, married with two children. His wife was Mary Powell, and they had married in early 1922.

He was reported as missing in France since May 1940. This was the time of the Dunkirk evacuation, and as Eric is commemorated on the Dunkirk Memorial, we can assume he was killed during this operation

Volunteer  Horace Brant

Home Guard

Died on 7th September 1941, Aged 42

Buried Loughborough Cemetery, 371.C. Grave 2.

Horace Brant was born on 23rd June 1899 in Leicester to parents Henry and Alice. In 1921 he was living at home at 11 Percival Street, Leicester, and working as a grocer’s assistant at the Meadow Dairy..  

There are records of a Leicester-born Horace Brant, born in 1899, serving in WW1 in the King’s Liverpool Regiment. If this is the same man, he was discharged in October 1918 and received a Silver War Badge, which was awarded to those who had been invalided out of active service. He was 19.  

By 1939 Horace was married to Elsie, with a daughter Dorothy, and had his own grocery and greengrocery business. They lived at 87 Nottingham Road, Loughborough.

Horace joined the Home Guard during WW2, and his funeral earned the sad distinction of being the first Home Guard funeral in the town. The Leicester Evening Mail reported on this in the 11th September 1941 issue. It seemed that Cpl Brant had suffered ‘a fatal collapse’ while on Home Guard manoeuvres the previous Sunday. He died in Loughborough General Hospital; perhaps of a heart attack? His injuries from WW1 could have meant he was not in the best of health

His funeral, which took place at All Saints Church, was accorded full military honours, with members of his platoon on parade, including Company Commander Major J C Vidgen-Jenks.

Leading Telegraphist C/SSX 26202 John Edward Bregazzi

H.M.S. Avenger, Royal Navy

Died on 15th November 1942. Aged 21.

Commemorated Chatham Naval Memorial, 65, 1.         

Born in Loughborough on 13th December 1920, John Bregazzi’s parents were Alfred and Edith. In January 1942 it appears that he married Drexell Alice Reynolds, a rather glamorous young woman who came from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. However, no official record of this brief marriage can be found and the Commonwealth War Graves Register, which usually names spouses, makes no mention of her.  

In November 1942 John was serving in HMS Avenger, acting as a convoy escort vessel on a voyage from Gibraltar to Clyde. The ship had narrowly missed an earlier torpedo attack, but on 15th November was hit fatally by U-155, 120 miles northwest of Gibraltar. Along with another ship in the convoy, HMS Ettrick, it sunk. The torpedo had hit the ship’s bomb load and blew out her whole mid-section and she sank in two minutes. Of the 526 officers and men, only 14 survived  

Another man commemorated on the Carillon’s WW2 Roll of Honour, Stanley Woods, was killed during this attack.

Chatham Naval Memorial

Air Mec. 1st Class FAA/FX. 90784 John Kenneth Brompton

H.M.S. Glorious, Royal Navy

Died on 8th June 1940, Aged 20.

Commem, Lee-On-Solent Memorial,  Bay 1, Panel .   5                                                                                                                                                                 

John Brompton’s parents were Arthur and Alice. He had four older brothers, and in 1921 the family’s home was 115 Meadow Lane Loughborough. He was educated at Loughborough Grammar School and was at one time a patrol leader of the Loughborough Parish Church Scouts. He joined the Navy straight from school. Contemporary reports say he was a very popular young man.  

As Air Mechanic Electrician First Class of the Fleet Air Arm, serving on aircraft carrier HMS Glorious, John died when she was sunk off Norway. Glorious was providing air cover for British forces landing in Norway from April 1940, and then switched roles to cover their evacuation. In June, the Germans launched Operation Juno, attacking the evacuating ships. Glorious was hit by the guns on German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau multiple times and sank with 43 survivors. John Kenneth Brompton was not amongst them.

Sergeant 1198300 Ernest Albert Brookes

7 Sqdn., Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Died on 6th December 1942, Aged 20.

Buried Heverlee War Cemetery Coll. grave 2. D. 1-6.

Ernest Albert’s parents were Ernest and May Brookes, and they had at least three other children. Ernest Brookes senior worked in a turbine machine shop and in 1939 the family’s address was 111 Paget Street, Loughborough. Young Ernest worked in lathe engineering.  

Serving with Bomber Command, Sergeant Ernest Brookes was a flight engineer on Stirlings. On the night of 6th December 1942 he set off on a raid from Oakington in Cambridgeshire, headed for Mannheim. It was a dark night – 10% moon. His aircraft was shot down by a Ju88 night fighter near Gembloux.

Flight Sergeant 1436641 Walter Brooks

644 Sqdn., Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Died on 23rd February 1945, Age 25.

Buried Loughborough Cemetery, Comp. 188. Grave 38.                                                                                            

Walter Brooks was born to parents Walter and Mary Ellen (née Robinson) in Hathern, in late 1919. By 1921 the family was living at 5 Warners Lane, Loughborough, and Walter Brooks senior was working for Messengers the horticultural engineers.  

Young Walter went to Loughborough Junior College, worked at Herbert Morris, and was a member of the ATC. He joined the RAF in 1942, and had twelve months training in South Africa.  

Based RAF Tarrant Rushton, Dorset, he crashed on the approach to Honiley due to multiple engine failure, when returning from a SOE sortie to Norway. Three of the crew survived.  

Private 14353990 John Douglas Bruin

Royal Army Ordnance Corps

Died on 9th October 1945, Age 21.

Buried Loughborough Cemetery, Comp. 398. Grave 13.

John Douglas Bruin was born in 1924 in Uxbridge and baptised in Hillingdon. His father was John and mother Florence, and they also had two daughters, Joan and June. John Bruin senior worked on the canal network as a toll collector. In 1939 the family address was Norton Junction; part of the famous Braunston Locks in Northamptonshire on the Grand Union Canal. His son however worked at Brush in Loughborough. By 1945 the family home was 19 Burleigh Road, Loughborough.  

John Bruin joined the Army in 1942, when he was 18, serving in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. Although he is listed on their Roll of Honour, there are no further details. The contemporary report of his death said that he had been discharged in 1943 due to ill health and had been an invalid ever since. His funeral was held at Emmanuel Church and he was buried in Loughborough Cemetery. For his mother Florence it was a time of additional sorrow; her husband had died only a few weeks previously.  

Driver 1148935 Ronald Bryan

644 Sqdn., Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Died on 29th April 1945, Aged 22.

Buried Becklingen   War Cemetery, Germany, 17. F. 1.                                                                                             

Born in Sheffield on 13th September 1923 to Joseph and Eveline Bryan (née Walker) he had four brothers (one of whom died in infancy) and one sister.  

In 1942 he married Doreen Mavis Spilby, who came from Loughborough.  

He died in Germany serving in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. No further details are currently available.  

Private 1148935 Robert Arthur Buckby

1st Btn West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales Own)

Died on 6th March 1944, aged 26.

Commemorated panel 7, Rangoon Memorial

His full name was Robert Arthur Hesilridge Buckby, and he was born in Loughborough on 10th September 1917 to parents Robert Edward Hesilridge Buckby and Eliza Ellen (née Thurman).

In 1921 they were living with his maternal grandparents Ada and William Thurman at 70 Havelock Street.

In early 1936 he married Lilian Newton, and their son Lawrence was born the same year. In 1939 Robert was employed as a bus conductor with the Lincolnshire Road Car Company and had previously worked at Liptons the grocer. Their daughter Barbara was born in 1941 and her sister Mavis in 1944.

Robert joined the army in 1940 and was killed in action in Burma. His death notices in the newspaper all rank him as Lance Corporal. However, army records rank him as private.

Captain Patrick Gifford Burder

1st Bn, Leicestershire Regiment

Died 11 - 13 December 1941, Aged 26.

Buried Taiping War Cemetery, Malaysia 2.G.7

Patrick Burder was the only son of Herbert and Lilian Burder, and was born in Southsea, Hampshire on 18th May 1915. He had two younger sisters, one of whom died aged 7.

Patrick Burder was educated at Haileybury College and later at Loughborough College. He was an all-round sportsman, and played rugby for Loughborough College and for Loughborough Town. He was also a member of the College fencing team.

Sergeant 628545 Michael Bury

Royal Air Force (possibly 71 OTU)

Died on 11th December 1944, Aged 23.

Buried Moascar War Cemetery, 2. D. 7.                                                                                             

Michael Bury was born in Coventry, as was his older sister Patricia. His link to Loughborough was that his parents, Arthur Bury and Margaret Palmer, were married in Loughborough.  

Details about Michael’s RAF service are lacking but it is known that in May 1943, No 71 Operational Training Unit, which he may have been serving in, was transferred to RAF Ismailia, Egypt.  

A post on the RAF Commands forum states: “Michael Bury 628545, was killed in a flying accident when Liberator MK VI EW 193 , crashed at Abu Sueir in an emergency landing at 18:29 hours and was destroyed by fire.”  

Other sources say that he was one of two airmen (the other being John Hutton from OTU 71) killed in this accident on 11th December 1944.