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Flt Sgt (Air Bomber) Francis Pinch RAFVR, 49 Sqn Surg Lt John Wade Rhys RN, HMS Glowworm Sgt (Pilot trainee) Ronald George Rider RAFVR, Unit ? Flt Sgt (W Op/Air Gnr) Robert Sadler RAFVR, 635 Sqn Pte Eric Desmond Sansom RASC, Dunkirk retreat, Unit ?
Flt Sgt (Pilot) Eric Vernon Sansom RAFVR, Sqn ?
Plt Off Desmond Wallace Skipper RAFVR, 101 Sqn LAC (Nav trainee) William Herbert Frederick Smale RAFVR, Unit ? Flt Sgt Leonard Edward Small RAF, 84 Sqn; in retreat ahead of Japanese Flt Sgt (Nav) Eric William Spriggs RAFVR, 15 Sqn Ord Seaman Herbert Godwin Stokes RN, HMS Jason Lt Arthur Norris Stone 5th Bn? Royal Berks Regt
LAC Peter Charles Turland RAF, Unit ? Pte Terence James Twohig RAPC, Unit ? Ass John Edward White RN, HMS Charybdis Sgt (Air Bomber) Eric George Wyatt RAFVR, 103 Sqn |
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In addition the following eight losses are believed to be OSGs:
Sgt (Flt Eng) John James Eaton RAFVR, 66 Sqn Sgt (Air Gnr) Peter Norman Ellis RAFVR, 161 Sqn (Special duty) L/Cpl F J Ferguson, Royal Corps Signals, Burma P&T Sigs Sgt (Air Gnr) Ronald Greenwood RAFVR, 76 Sqn Sgt Charles Kelly RAFVR Sqdn Ldr Peter Nixey RAF, 214 Sqn
Sgt William James Henry Robb, Royal Fusiliers, 9th Bn City of London Rgt Plt Off (Pilot) Alfred Victor Snelling RAFVR 78 Sqn |
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It may be thought perhaps insensitive to make any remarks about individuals listed above, but the following is meant as a symbolic tribute to all those brave and gallant young people cut down in their prime:
John Rhys was a great sportsman, and brainy too (just like his brother David). He went on to become a doctor after qualifying in double quick time at Guys Hospital before being called up to serve in the RN. He was appointed Medical Officer of HMS Glowworm, a ship which is famed in the annals of British naval history. She was the destroyer, which was fatally shot up by the German cruiser Hipper in the Norwegian Sea and without any serviceable guns or torpedoes left to fire, damaged her adversary by ramming her before sinking with the loss of most of her crew. The captain of Glowworm was awarded the VC posthumously. The Barden brothers' lives were commemorated by their parents' endowment of the Leslie Barden Prize for Geography and the David Barden Prize for French. David won a Kitchener Scholarship as well as another major scholarship to Christ's College Cambridge to study modern languages (L T Brown's very own college and faculty); but after one year he joined up. Whilst training, he undertook some teaching at Spring Grove before going to the Far East, where he died from influenza after the war had ended. A third brother Arthur and sister Gladys both served their country well and survived the war. Stan and Stan and Cyril Eckert (photo above) were paratroopers; Stan jumped and landed in Normandy just after midnight on 6th June 1944, followed shortly by Cyril. Later that day Stan wrote a poignant letter to his mother whilst sheltering in a ditch. Sadly he was killed shortly after this but the next day a Royal Marine Commando found his body and forwarded the letter to Mrs Eckert. The letter is on display in the Merville Battery Museum near Ranville in Normandy, though much faded. Stan and Cyril are laid to rest in graves close together, alongside many others from the Parachute Regt, in the Military War Cemetery, Ranville. Hazel Batten, the only young woman from our school known for certain to have been lost, drowned near Durban in unknown circumstances but which cost several other Wrens their lives, and which may have been as result of a tragic accident close to the beach.
There were many other brave men and women in uniform from our school, but who came home; some had surprising adventures, one such was Roy Baxter (1938). Roy was a Sgt aircrew member on a Wellington bomber which crash landed behind German lines in Libya in July 1942. All six crew got out and with their emergency water walked back 180 miles (yes 180!) over the next nine days back to the Allied lines to fight another day - and they did. This story hit the national newspapers at the time and was reported later in the Middlesex Chronicle who made much of it with a headline akin to “local boy goes for long walk in the desert”. |
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8.5.1944 Age 20. St Doulchard Cemetery, Cher, France 8.4.1940 Age ? Portsmouth Naval Memorial. See notes 29.4.1942 Age ? Harare (Pioneer) Cemetery, Zimbabwe 4.6.1944 Age 23. Downham Market Cemetery 22.5/11.6.1940 Age 21. Paluel Churchyard, Seine-Maritime, France 23.10.1941 Age 26. St John the Baptist Churchyard, Colerne, Avon 28.9.1943 Age 22. Cambridge City Cemeetry 15.9.1942 Age 19. St Jean-sur-Richelieu Cemetery, Quebec, Canada 12.3.1942 Age 20. Singapore Memorial
21.6.1944 Age 22. Heston & Isleworth (Hounslow) Cemetery 27.8.1944 Age 19. Portsmouth Naval Memorial 20.1.1945 Age 29. Nederweert War Cemetery, Limburg, Holland 2.5.1945 Age 23. Labuan War Cemetery, Malaysia 26.10.1942 Age 23. St Leonard's Churchyard, Heston 23.10.1943 Age 24. St Peter Port (Foulon) Cemetery, Guernsey 2.12.1943 Age ? Berlin 1939-45 War Cemetery, Germany |
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28.4.1944 Age ? Vevey (St Martin's) Cemetery, Switzerland 14.2.1945 Age ? Cambridge City Cemetery
24.6.1946 Age ? Taukkyan War Cemetery, Burma 4.6.1942 Age ? Bergen General Cemetery, Norway 28.6.1941 Age ? Runnymede Air Force Memorial 20.6.1942 Age 22 Ommen General Cemetery, Overijssel, Holland 12.9.1943 Age 26 Salerno war Cemetery, Sicily
9.6.1941 Age ? St George’s Churchyard, Middleton St George, Durham |