George was born in July 1906 in Hendon, London, to parents George and Ethel Sanderson He had a sister, Ethel, and two brothers, Percy (b 1909) and Ernest. In 1921 the family was living at 78 Chippenham Mews, north west London, and 15- year-old George was working as a van guard for a paper company.

According to the Commonwealth War Graves register, and Forces War Records, his wife was Elizabeth Amy but no record of this marriage can be found. Rather intriguingly, his brother Percy had married a woman called Elizabeth Amy Courtney in 1930. They were living together at 28 Wilson Road, Camberwell, in 1933.

One wonders if this marriage failed and if so, did Amy subsquently marry or go to live with George? The Commonwealth War Graves register says they lived in Shelthorpe, Loughborough. Another (public) family tree on Ancestry also suggests that George was Amy’s second husband. It is known that George and Amy had a son, Ronald, born in 1936.

George was one of many, many men killed at Dunkirk in May 1940.

Harold was born in Bradford in 1917. His father Albert Shepherd was killed in France in 1918. His mother was born Alice Brudenell. In 1921 the household at 24 Orleans Road consisted of the widowed Alice, young Harold, stepdaughters Phyllis (13) and Edith (9) and a boarder. Phyllis was already going out to work at a worsted mill.

Alice Shepherd died in 1935. In the summer of 1937 20-year-old Harold married Bradford girl Vera Wheater, in North Bierley, Yorkshire, but at the time of his death they were living in Loughborough.

When he was killed, Harold was serving on a Dutch merchant ship, Bennekom, one of a convoy crossing the North Atlantic from Liverpool on its way to Madras. He was one of seven Royal Artillery gunners on board. At 22.47 hours U-96 fired four torpedoes at the convoy, hitting the Bennekom. The fuel tank caught fire, sending flaming oil across the ship. Some of the crew managed to get away in lifeboats but they pulled away without attempting to rescue the 25 survivors remaining on the foredeck, afraid that the sinking ship would pull the lifeboats under. Some of the remaining survivors got into a raft which had space for 18 people; others volunteered to swim, hanging onto a hatch cover.

The survivors were picked up HMS Culver and HMS Lulworth. Harold Shepherd however had not survived the attack, as his body was recovered by HMS Lulworth and subsequently buried at sea. He was one of seven people killed, while 47 survived.

Born 17th August 1920 in Loughborough, Frederick’s parents were Albert and Bertha Shepherd. In 1921 the family, including daughters Freda and Brenda, were living at 125 Nottingham Road. Albert Shepherd was a railway clerk.

From 1931 to 1936 Frederick attended Loughborough Grammar School, where he was a ‘solid perfomer’ and played for the 2nd XI in both cricket and football.

He left just before his 16th birthday to join the Navy; this would have been c.1936. By 1939 Frederick had become an apprentice electrical artificer on HMS Caledonia. In his war service, he was electrical artificer (4th class) on HMS Dunedin, a light cruiser. 486 officers and men were on board.

Dunedin was one of three ships sent to track down German ships that had been discovered by decrypted Enigma messages to be in the South Atlantic. U-124 detected that Dunedin was unescorted. The U-boat’s periscope was spotted and the ship gave chase to U-124 but lost track of it. Now it was the U-boat’s turn to go after the cruiser and three torpedoes were fired. Two of them hit the ship.

About 250 survivors managed to leave the ship by jumping overboard, clinging on to floats and debris. The U-boat surfaced and circled the survivors for about ten minutes but then left, which must have been nerve-shredding to say the least.

Three days after the attack, only 72 survivors were still alive. Some had drowned, some died of their injuries or exhaustion, and some, particularly horribly, had been bitten by sharks. It’s not known at which point Frederick Shepherd perished. The American ship Nishmaha eventually rescued 67 men, but Frederick Shepherd was not one of them.

Arthur Simmons was born in Loughborough on 8th February 1921. His birth record gives his mother’s name as Simmons, so presumably she was not married to Arthur’s father. It was perhaps for this reason that he was brought up by his grandparents, Alfred and Hannah Simmons, who lived at 94 Station Street. Their daughter Violet, aged 18, lived with them too, so it’s possible that she was Arthur’s mother. She worked in the hosiery industry.

Arthur went to Rosebery School. In 1939 he was still living with his grandparents and was an apprentice joiner. It’s known that he worked for Loughborough builder George Read.

At the beginning of 1944 Arthur married Frances Swinhoe in Northumberland and at the time of his death they were living in Northumberland at Newbiggin-by-Sea. During the war Frances served in the ATS.

Arthur Simmons was killed in action whilst serving with the 14th Army in Burma. He was a stretcher-bearer and was helping a wounded comrade when he and several others were killed. He was buried with those who fell with him.

George Slater was born in Loughborough on 6th July 1908, to parents Henry James Waldren Slater and Florence (née Ward). There were eventually nine children in the family, four girls and five boys. Henry Slater was a dyer’s labourer.

In 1911 the Slaters were living at 18 Warner Place in Loughborough and by 1921 had moved to 18 Packer Street. In 1934 they were at 4 Recreation Street in Long Eaton. Henry Slater had a minor brush with the law in 1934 when he was charged with being drunk and disorderly; he pleaded guilty and said he was very sorry.

Young George attended the National Schools and Station Street Baptist Sunday School. In 1932 he married Emma May Hayward, and the 1939 Register shows the couple living at 4 Recreation Street, along with a police sergeant who was probably a lodger. George Slater was by now a foreman at Derby Midland Dyers.

Serving with the Durham Light Infantry, George Horace Slater was killed in the North African campaign.

In 1946 his widow Emma, known as May, married George’s brother Frederick. She died in 2002

Alec Smalley was born in Leicester on 13th March 1914. His mother was called Ann (née Marston), his father Ernest. In 1921 Alec lived with his parents and five older siblings at 224 Melton Road, but his father died in 1924.

He was educated at the Alderman Newton's Leicester, and from there Loughborough Grammar School, from 1926 to 1930. He was described as a ‘good boy all round’ – although he struggled with English – and played in the 2nd XI football team. For a time he was secretary of the Old Loughburians Association. His brother Dennis was Secretary of Loughborough Hospital.

In October 1936 the Leicester Mercury announced: “Loughborough man weds doctor’s daughter”. This was Patricia Peggy Paltridge, Alex’s new wife.

It sounds as though Alec was keen to make something of himself. In 1938 he was successful in the final examination of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries, was elected an Associate Member of the Institute in August 1938, and made a fellow in March 1939.

In 1939, aged 25, he was manager of the Loughborough Branch of the Leicester Permanent Building Society, where we are told that his cheerful personality and courteous business manner was greatly respected by the customers. He and Patricia lived at 33 York Road, Loughborough, and on July 30th of that year, she gave birth to their son, Henry Marshall.

In 1939 Alec had joined the Auxilary Fire Service, where he was station officer, and he joined the RAF in May 1940. He was based at West Malling in Kent, in Fighter Command, and was killed in an accident. Flying in a Havoc, he died when it crashed into an orchard after overshooting the runway during a night sortie.

Alec’s funeral, with a RAF guard of honour, was at Loughborough Parish Church, where at one time he had been a sidesman.

In January 1942 Patricia gave birth to a daughter, who of course would never have known her father. Patricia was living at her parents’ home at 99 Toothill Road, Loughborough, at the time, where she had moved to with Alec. She died in 1950, when she was only 40, and her children only 11 and 8.

The CWGC website gives this information:
Son of Mr. and Mrs. G. Smith; husband of Julia Smith, of Loughborough, Leicestershire
Royal Army Ordnance Corps 30 Reinforcement Holding Unit

Reinforcement Holding Units dealt with the movement of reinforcement troops. Most were formed early 1944 in preparation for the invasion of France. (D-Day).

James was born in 1913 to John Alfred and Priscilla Ellen Smith and married Ethel Janet Annie Elliot in Loughborough in 1940.

He served in the Royal Artillery but further details cannot be found.

Reginald Smith was born on 12th November 1922 in Loughborough, to parents John and Elizabeth. He was the eldest of seven children.

He went to St Mary’s School and later became apprenticed to Charles Tyler in Derby Square. From there he joined the RAF.

In October 1942 he married Iris Wykes in Loughborough. She was serving in the WAAF and they married in uniform (see photo above). She was 18 and he only 20; perhaps an instance of marrying young while they still had the opportunity. Very sadly, the marriage was to last for less than a year.

At the time of his death Reginald was based in West Africa at RAF Bathhurst, Gambia. 204 Squadron operated anti-submarine patrols from there. Flying in a Sutherland III, RAF records say he was ‘lost in aircraft’. It is not conclusive how his death occurred. He may have crashed during a storm during a transit flight from the UK to West Africa. Iris remarried in 1945.

Sidney was the son of Robert and Martha Smith, born in Loughborough in 1919. He was the youngest of eight, and his siblings had all been born in Mountsorrel. In 1921 the family home was 50 Nottingham Road, Loughborough. His father worked at the Brush but died when Sidney was 13.

Sid joined the Leicestershire TA Regiment in May 1934. In WW2, he became a POW during the Norwegian Campaign in Spring 1940. He made nine attempts to escape, once succeeding in getting nearly halfway across the Baltic in a motor launch, before having the bad luck to be picked up by a German cruiser.

He was repatriated in February 1945 and discharged as physically unfit for service. He was greeted at 40 Pinfold Street in Loughborough, by his invaild mother, who died shortly afterwards.

Sid got married in March 1945, to Violet Coles, but he died in Loughborough Hospital just six months after the wedding. In 1939 Violet was living at Loughborough Hospital, where she worked in the laundry, Sid may have known her before he left for Norway, but if she was still working there in 1945 he may have met her when he went to the hospital for treatment for a condition caused by his wartime imprisonment.

William’s parents were William and Sarah Jane Smith, who lived in Loughborough, although William was born in 1915 in Mansfield. He was one of a family of six and his father was a baker.

William enlisted on 14th December 1932. In WW2 he served in France and Belgium and died between 26th May and 4th June 1940. This was of course the Dunkirk evacuation, so he was one of 1,000 (approximately) British soldiers who died.

William was born on 10th February 1915 to parents Bertie and Mary Ann Soars. He had an older sister and brother, Audrey and George, and a younger brother, Herbert. They lived at 68 Freehold Street and Bertie Soars was a builder’s labourer.

After school William Soars worked as an engineer’s fitter at Brush. He lived with his sister Audrey and brother Herbert at 68 Freehold Street. Bertie Soars had died in 1935 so it’s likely that Mary Ann had died too.

He joined the army around 1935 and in 1942 was serving in the Royal Engineers, 13th Searchlight Battery, in Malaya. He was taken prisoner by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore on 15th February 1942 and sent to a POW camp where the unfortunate inmates were set to work on the notorious Thailand to Burma ‘death railway’.

William Soars survived this ordeal for a year and 11 months. His cause of death was stated as ‘polyavitaminosis’ – i.e. a lack of several vitamins. His sister Audrey was informed that he died from beri-beri, which is caused specifically by a lack of vitamin B1. It was one of the main causes of death in the POW camps, as the men were fed almost exclusively on small amounts of white rice. Beri-beri, amoebic dysentry and malaria all killed thousands of Japanese-held POWs.

George, the son of George Henry and Barbara Somerville, was born in Loughborough in 1915. He had an older brother and sister. In 1921 the family lived at 5 Selbourne Street and George senior was a printer’s compositor. At the time of young George’s death they had moved to Beacon Road.

George joined army school at the age of 15 and became a regular soldier. He was posted abroad in October 1934, to the garrison of the then British controlled island of Hong Kong. His army duties took him to many places in the Far East including cities and towns in China. He served as a wireless operator in the Royal Corps of Signals.

His parents were first informed that he was missing, then that he had been killed in action at some point between 8th and 25th December. His unit’s war diary, however, records his date of death as 23rd December.

John (aka Jack) was born on 23rd May 1920 in Stratford, London, to parents Lily and Frederick Sparkes. In 1921 he was the youngest of four children. In 1939 he was a builder’s labourer, living with his father in West Ham.

At the time of Jack’s death his parents had moved to Loughborough, although he was still living in London. Serving in the Essex Regiment, he was killed in action in Italy.

Maurice Spence was born in Mountsorrel on 31st May 1918, the only child of Benjamin and Eveline Spence. By 1921 they were living at 8 Edward Street, Loughborough. From 1929 to 1934 Maurice went to Loughborough Grammar School, where his reports were consistently good, and where he played for the 2nd XI in both football and cricket.

On leaving he trained to be an accountant at the Danish Bacon Company and was due to sit his final examination as a chartered accountant secretary when war was declared. By now his family had moved to 91 Knightthorpe Road, Loughborough.

Maurice joined the RAF on 10th June 1940 and by 1942 was serving at the isolated Toungoo airfield in south central Burma as a Corporal Clerk. Toungoo was strategically important for the defence of Rangoon, being on the main Rangoon to Mandalay road. The Japanese were advancing on the road after capturing Rangoon on 8th March, and on their way to attack the Chinese Nationalist Armies through Yunnan Province. They also aimed to destroy the small British force in the area or push it back into India.

RAF Station Toungoo had been in use by RAF 67 Squadron, equipped with Hawker Hurricanes to defend Rangoon, but with the fall of the city the aircraft were redeployed, leaving a small RAF and Army force to defend the airfield. At 07:00 on 24th March the Japanese attacked the airfield and evacuation was ordered as Japanese forces overran it. Some men managed to escape but not Maurice Spence. He was reported as missing, presumed killed.

Some of this information courtesy of https://mountsorrelarchive.org/

Born in Loughborough 22nd May 1903, Leonard was the son of Sidney and Sarah Spencer. In 1911 the family lived at 128 Ashby Road. Sidney Spencer was a traction motor fitter and died serving in WW1, while Sarah was in the hosiery industry.

In 1925 Leonard married Nora Buckingham and they had three children. One was Norman, born in 1931. In 1939 Nora was living in Barrow upon Soar but Leonard was not listed at the same address.

Before serving in the Corps of Military Police, Leonard Spencer served in the Leicestershire Regiment. It has not been possible to discover more about his military service or how he died.

Norah Spencer died less than a year later, on 23rd May 1942 aged about 40.

Thomas was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Spicer, born in Loughborough on 28th December 1919. He had an older brother and sister. In 1921 the family home was 44 Ashby Road and Thomas senior worked at Herbert Morris.

Young Thomas Spicer attended Rosebery and Limehurst Schools, and later worked at Palfreyman Bros, a slaters company. He was a talented boxer.

Thomas enlisted on 24th June 1940 and served in Algeria, Tunisia and Italy. He was reported wounded and missing in Italy, later reported as killed in action.

Wilfred was born in Loughborough in early 1923 to Beatrice (née Clarke) and Wilfred Spiers, who was a schoolteacher at Trent Bridge School in Nottingham. He had a younger brother, Eric, born in 1928.

Their parents separated. In August 1934 an item in the Leicester Evening Mail reported that Wilfred Spiers, a teacher who lived in Nottingham, had been summonsed for failing to pay £90 in maintenance arrears to his estranged wife. ‘Objectionable postcards’ had been sent to him at the school – the inference was that Beatrice had sent them, but she denied it, saying the writing was not hers. He had refused to pay the maintenance while the postcards were arriving, but under threat of losing his job, unless the sender was prosecuted, agreed to continue to pay 37s a week plus 8s arrears.

It seems that Beatrice and Wilfred were not reconciled. In 1939 she was living at 2 Queens Road in Loughborough with her widowed mother Gertrude Clarke, Dorothy Clarke and Albert Clarke, (presumably her younger siblings), and her son 11-year-old Eric. One entry has been redacted; this might have been Wilfred, who was 16 at the time.

Young Wilfred was educated at Limehurst School, and after leaving school worked as a fitter at Herbert Morris. He also served in the Home Guard. He enlisted in the RAF in August 1941. A keen sportsman, he played for his squadron football team. In October 1942 he married Joan Wagg who lived with her family at 37 Woodbrook Road. She worked as a printer’s packer.

In the RAF Wilfred Spiers served in Bomber Command, flying in Halifaxes as a gunner. On the night of 22nd September 1943 he set off on a raid over Hannover. His aircraft was believed to have been hit by flak in the target area and it crashed out of control. The order to abandon was given but Wilfred, as gunner, was trapped in his turret, the pilot stayed at his controls while the flight engineer and mid-upper gunner went to the aid of Spiers. All three lost their lives in their attempt to save him, but the remaining three of the crew survived and were captured.

NB. It would seem that in the family he was known as Rowland, perhaps to differentiate him from his father. A Roll of Honour notice from the Loughborough Echo of September 1952, is for ‘treasured memories’ of Rowland, Sgt AG RAFVR, from ‘Mother, Eric and Grandma’. Beatrice’s death notice, in 1979, also spells Rowland this way. His gravestone simply says ‘WR Spiers’.

William was born in 1913 in Shepshed. His parents were Thomas and Martha Ann Squires, (née Haywood). Thomas Squires served in the Leicestershire Regiment and was killed on 16th July 1916. (CWCG names William’s father as William Squires but this is incorrect).

In 1921 the widowed Martha was living as a boarder with the Newton family with her young son William, aged 6, and daughter Doreen Frances, 1 year and 4 months. Their address was Loughborough Road, Shepshed. Doreen was too young to have been the late Thomas Squires’s child.

Martha Squires later married Harry Hurt, and on the 1939 Register they are living at 18 Cambridge Street, Shepshed, with William, and Frances D Squires, born 1920, listed on the 1921 Census as Doreen Frances Squires.

William Squires worked at Tucker’s brickyard, had many friends in Loughborough, and in 1940 he married Kate Sharpe. They had a daughter, Maureen.

William enlisted about 1939 or 1940, and at the time of his death had not seen his little daughter since she was two months old, so Maureen must have been born around 1940.

Serving with the Royal Artillery in Iraq, William Squires died of malaria

Anthony (aka Tony) was born on 24th July 1924, to Charles and Constance Stanton. They had another son, Leslie, born in 1921. Charles Stanton was the landlord of the King’s Arms pub in Hathern.

Tony, an apprentice joiner with Loughborough firm Hammond & Sons, joined up in 1943, went to Normandy on 16th June and served with the Landing Brigade Airborne Troops, and was eventually attached to the 51st Highland Division. He was one of six men from his unit killed on 16th December 1944.

There are few details available about Owen Moore Stephenson. His parents were Charles and Maud, and he was (probably) born in Leicester in 1911. However, there is a birth record of Owen M Stephenson being born to a mother called Stephenson in 1912 in Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

In 1933 he married Ivy Richardson in Ashby-de-la-Zouch. They had three children, Mary, Sidney and one other.

Army records are also contradictory, giving his birthplace as Leicester and place of residence either as Coventry or Loughborough at the time of his death.

William, known to his family and friends as Bill, was born in Loughborough on 28th February 1916, the son of Samuel Sutton and his wife Elizabeth. Bill had three sisters Edith, Nellie and Dorothy. There had also been twins Richard and William who had died soon after birth in 1907.

In 1921 the family lived at 24 Rectory Place, Loughborough. In 1939 Bill was living with his parents and sister Dorothy at 139 Park Road, Loughborough. Both he and his father worked in the hosiery industry, Bill at Towles in Loughborough, later at a firm in Nottingham. His father Samuel died in 1940.

As Gunner 1560047 Bill joined 194 Battery, 65 Light Anti-Aircraft Unit, of the Royal Artillery and served in Egypt for several months. He was ‘presumed killed in action at sea’ in January 1942, aged 25. His mother had last heard from him on 29th December 1941.

John (nickname Pim) was born on 19th February 1921 to John Alexander and Alice Mabel Swift, who at the time lived in Sutton Bonnington, Nottinghamshire, with Mabel’s parents. His brother Anthony was born in 1930.

After Hathern Church of England School, young John attended Loughborough Grammar School from 1933 to 1937, where he was consistently in the middle of his form, but gained his School Certificate.

In 1939 the family were living at 1 Derby Road, Hathern. John was an apprentice hosiery engineer, while his father managed a hosiery factory as well as being an ARP warden and Lieutenant in the Hathern Home Guard. John also served in the Home Guard before joining the RAF in 1941.

He went to Canada for flying training. In 1943 he was serving with 227 Squadron, based at Lakatamia, Cyprus. He was certainly there in summer 1943 and wrote to his mother about life in Cyprus, praising the excellence of local fruit, wine and beer, and saying he was learning Greek. It sounds quite idyllic but it was not to last.

There are detailed reports of the flight that caused his death (shortened here).

Accompanied by five other aircraft in the squadron, the crew took off in a Bristol Beaufighter (JL 939) at 07.30 hours, in fine weather. Near Rhodes, at 09.50 hours, four enemy aircraft (Me 109s) were spotted approaching them. The Beaufighter took evasive action, but one of the Me 109s, jettisoning its long range fuel tanks, went on the attack. John Swift’s Beaufighter was attacked several times, and crashed into the sea, ablaze. Four of the other aircraft crashed as well.

Later that evening there was a search for remains of the missing aircraft and crew members, but none were found. Along with John Alexander Swift, they are commemorated on the Alamein Memorial in Egypt.

More details of his life can be found at www.hathernhistory.co.uk/index.php/home/9-uncategorised/496-john-alexander-swift-pim https://www.hathernhistory.co.uk/index.php/home/9-uncategorised/496-john-alexander-swift-pim

Archibald was born in Loughborough on 24th October 1921 to Florence Mary Taylor. She later married John Elliot, who brought up Archibald as his stepson. In 1939 the family were living at 11 Church Street, Shepshed, both father and stepson working in the hosiery industry.

Archibald married Elsie Doreen Piggins in Loughborough in 1943 and their son Jeffrey was born on 29th December 1944, four months after his father’s death in France.

Serving in Bomber Command as a flight engineer, Archibald Taylor took off in a Lancaster to bomb oil storage dumps in the Foret de Chatellerault. The aircraft crashed in a village called Thure; possibly due to a collision with a Lancaster from another squadron.

Born in Glamorgan in 1924, his father’s name was William Thomas, his mother F W Thomas. He died of wounds sustained in fighting in Holland. At the time of his death he was living in Dorset

He was born in 1914 in Penarth, Wales, to Rhys and Mary Thomas. His father was killed in WW1 in July 1916. By 1921 Reginald was living in Rogerstone, Newport, with his mother and three older sisters.

He went to Oakfield School, Newport, and Penarth County School. After that he enrolled at Loughborough College, and in 1937 received a teacher training diploma (2nd class honours). From there, he went to King William College, Isle of Man, where he spent five years, as a tutor in handicraft, engineering and athletics.

In 1942 he was back in Loughborough, and married Ann Hardy, whose father was a director of the hosiery firm Towles.

Reginald died during a training exercise instructing a pupil in a Miles Magister. He lost control during an intentional spin and crashed into the ground near Woodborough, Wiltshire. His pupil, 22 year old South African Jacobus Baard, was also killed.

Geoffrey was born on 7th November 1912 in Edmonton, the son of Charles and Edith Thompson. In 1921 the family were living in London’s Muswell Hill, at 21 Midhurst Avenue. Geoffrey had two sisters and one brother, and their father was a ladies’ dress goods merchant and agent. They employed a domestic servant.

He was in north London’s Hornsey in 1935, and by 1939 Geoffrey, an electrical engineer, was living with the Picking family at 114 Oakleigh Road, Whetstone. He also served in the Civil Air Guard at Broxbourne. On 24th March he married Marjorie Picking in Hendon. She worked as a librarian and also served in the Land Army.

Serving in the Royal Artillery, Geoffrey Thompson was caught up in the events following the evacuation of Dunkirk. His name was on a list of missing Royal Artillery personnel, to be circulated to POW camps. It’s likely he was simply lost without trace in the fighting.

It’s not clear what his connection (if any) was to Loughborough. His probate record states his address as 114 Oakleigh Road, Middlesex. He seems to have lived in north London for most of his life.

Albert was born in Sileby on 23rd November 1905. His parents were James and Annie Thornett, and he had a younger brother and sister. James Thornett was a labourer at Mountsorrel Quarry, and the family lived in Swann Street, Sileby and later moved to 106 Loughborough Road, Sileby.

In 1931 Albert married Ivy Chamberlain in Barrow upon Soar. But by 1939 Albert was widowed and was living at 106 Loughborough Road, with his parents, sister Clara and brother Arthur. His job was weighbridge clerk. He married again in July 1942, to Catherine Child. At the time of his death she lived at 313 Forest Road, Loughborough.

Serving in the RAOC, Albert died in Stoke on Trent. According to https://mountsorrelarchive.org/ he died of illness.

Edwin was born in Loughborough on 30th April 1907, to parents William and Sarah Thornewell. In 1911 he lived at 16 Union Street, along with older siblings William and Florence. Their father was a labourer to an electrical engineer. He had served in WW1 in the Leicestershire Regiment but was in receipt of a pension, having been discharged unfit in December 1915, due to rheumatism.

Edwin attended Rosebery Street Infants’ School. We know this because his name appears in a rather sweet account of ‘Christmas Festivities’ in the Loughborough Echo in December 1912. He was one of the children who won a prize in the school’s prizegiving event which included Christmas songs and a play “The Snow Fairies”.

By 1921 the family had moved to 37 Union Street and Edwin, 14, was still at school.

In 1931 Edwin married Eveline Monk and their daughter Florence was born the following year. Pamela was born in 1939, and there may have been a third child. In 1939 they were living in Loughborough at 59 Broad Street and Edwin worked as a window cleaner.

Edwin’s RAF service ended with illness and accident. Based at Tuddenham, he was admitted, dangerously ill, to RAF Hospital Ely, following a fall from his bicycle. He was transferred to the Hughes College military hospital in Oxford where he died of bronchopneumonia, a fractured skull and brain laceration.

Little can be discovered about Alfred Thorneycroft. He was born in Loughborough on 8th March 1911, and his parents were Mr and Mrs L Thorneycroft.

In 1929 he married Jane Ashford. They had three children: Kenneth (b 1930), Richard (b 1932) and Lilian (b 1934). In 1939 they were living at 25 Belton Road Loughborough, and Alfred was a general labourer.

His death, serving in an anti-aircraft unit, occurred in Grimsby.

Robert Tingle was a Primitive Methodist minister. In 1921 the family were living in Nelson in Lancashire, where Robert Tingle was minister in a circuit of different churches. They moved frequently; other locations included Glasgow, Shipley and Manchester.

By 1939 the family had moved to 49 Central Avenue, Wigston and Lacey was a teacher at Catherine Street School. Then in 1941 Robert Tingle took up a ministry in Loughborough.

Perhaps influenced by his religious upbringing (although his father had served in WW1 in the West Yorkshire Regiment) Lacey Tingle had registered as a Conscientious Objecter, and in August 1940 appeared before a tribunal chaired by Alderman Purser. Lacey said he was willing to take up non-combatant duties, had been training with St John’s Ambulance, and believed in the brotherhood of man.

This cut no ice with the Alderman. He dismissed the brotherhood of man as “religious clap trap”, saying it was the 3,131st time it had been used as a reason not to fight, and that he had never been able to find out where the idea came from. However, Lacey was ordered to remain on the CO register to carry out non-combatant duties, such as forestry, with a recommendation to join the RAMC.

In 1940 he joined a non-combatant corps and served in bomb disposal, working during the dangers of the Blitz in the south of England.

He later volunteered for a paratroop regiment, serving in the 224 Parachute Field Ambulance. As a Conscientious Objector and non-combatant he did not carry weapons, and served as a stretcher bearer. He took an Elementary Parachute Training Course at RAF Ringway in summer 1943. His whole unit, ten officers and 127 other ranks, took the course, making descents from a balloon and aircraft. Lacey Tingle did well. His instructor commented: “Keen hard worker – fine performer”. After the course he was posted to 224 Parachute Field Ambulance, RAMC, which was attached to the 3rd Parachute Brigade.

He took part in Operation ‘Tonga’, to Normandy, on the night of the 5th-6th June 1944. This of course was D-Day. The mission was to drop certain members of the 3rd Parachute Brigade Headquarters, including Captain W.E. Church, the Medical Officer and his orderlies. Lacey Tingle was amongst them, and landed near the village of Douville-en-Auge. The group of British and Canadian paratroopers was surrounded by the enemy and in the ensuing battle nine of them lost their lives, including Lacey. The dead men were buried in the village by local people, before being moved to Ranville War Cemetery after the war. One could not be identified and was named as Unknown Soldier.

However, subsequent research by the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC) and the National Army Museum found that Unknown Soldier was in fact Private Lacey Tingle. In 2018 he was given a new headstone with his name, and the ceremony was attended by his 96-year-old sister Margaret Keighley, who found it a great comfort, as she said she had never been able to properly grieve for her brother.

An official account of the actions of 224 Field Ambulance perhaps serves as a appropriate obituary to Private Lacey Tingle and his comrades.

“The high standard of care given to the 6th Airborne Division casualties in Normandy, and later campaigns, was in no small measure due to the untiring efforts and courage of a group of Conscientious Objectors serving with the RAMC.”

Roland’s parents were Tom and Ada Tivey, and he was born in Shepshed in 1912. The family does not seem to appear on any Census returns.

In 1940 Roland married Marjorie Catherall (b 1920) who worked in the lace trade and lived at 72 Wellington Street Loughborough. They had two children: Robert (b 1940) and Fay (b 1941). At one time Roland worked at Matlands in Loughborough.

Roland enlisted in the Leicestershire Regiment on 27th June 1940. He served in Libya and was one of 17 men from the regiment killed or injured there between 25th November and 1st December 1941.

The son of Arthur and Elizabeth Todd was born on 30th October 1915. They lived at 7 Rectory Place, Lougborough. Arthur Todd worked at Herbert Morris, and young Eric had an older brother and sister.

Eric attended Loughborough Grammar School from 1927 to 1932, where it seems he was an outstanding pupil, both academically, as a musician, a violinist, footballer and all round athlete. After school he worked in the hosiery industry.

Eric enlisted on 16th May 1940 and began officer training the following November. He was commissioned into the Leicestershire Regiment on 28th February 1941 and was attached to The Northern Rhodesia Regiment. Whilst in Africa he became engaged to a South African girl, Janet Mary Swann, from Durban.

His death was due to a mortar range accident in Kenya, after he was originally reported as being dangerously ill.

He was born in Quorn in 1914 to parents Laurence and Annie; there were two daughters, Rosey and Dorothy, as well. In 1921 the family lived at 18 Soar Side. Their father was a labourer for Loughborough Corporation. By the time of their son’s death they had moved to 119 Derby Road, Loughborough.

Laurence Towell joined the Royal Marines in 1931, when he was 17. In November 1941 he was serving in HMS Barham, to cover the cruiser squadrons hunting down Italian convoys in the central Mediterranean. The ship was torpedoed by U-331, capsized quickly and then sunk in a massive explosion as her magazines detonated. 862 officers and ratings were killed, including 126 Royal Marines, Laurence Towell amongst them. The terrifying explosion was filmed from a ship sailing in the vicinity and shown on Pathé News.

Kenneth was born in 1919 to Gwilym and Gwladys Tudor. As their names suggest, the family was Welsh and Kenneth was born in Neath, Glamorganshire. His brother Dillwyn was 12 years older, and both he and his father worked for Baldwins the mining company.

George was born in Thrumpton, Nottinghamshire on 9th December 1915 to parents Charles and Beatrice Tuson. He had two older brothers, Charles and Edward. In 1921 the family were living near Loughborough in Main Street, Long Whatton.

He married Annie Consterdine in 1937. She was only 20 but it was her second marriage. Their daughter Muriel was born in December that year and their son Keith in 1939. On the 1939 Register Annie was living at 19a Queens Road Loughborough, with family members.

During his service in the Royal Navy, George Tuson was mentioned in dispatches. He died off the coast of Norway when his submarine HMS Spearfish was torpedoed by U-34 off Cape Nose Head and sunk. It had been a successful patrol for U-34, having already sunk four ships.

There was only one survivor from HMS Spearfish. Twenty-nine others were killed, including George Tuson.