WW2 100 – 3 July 1941 – ‘Always in our thoughts Gone but not forgotten’: Private Clifton Ernest Woolacott (1921-41) 12th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment
Continued from 3 July 1941 ‘Our beloved son’: Private Stanley John Holloway (1914-41) https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/12/ww2-75-3-july-1941-our-beloved-son.html The tragic death of 20-year-old Clifton Ernest Woolacott stirred various thoughts in me when I first read about it. He is not listed on Budleigh Salterton’s War Memorial, yet his grave is in St Peter’s Burial Ground on Moor Lane. His family were not local, yet he seems to have been killed while engaged in the highly hazardous work of protecting Budleigh against invasion. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records him as a member of the 12 th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment with the Service Number was 5619427. According to the CWGC, his parents were James Thomas Woolacott and his wife, Elise Jane Woolacott, of Totnes. Tackling this WW2 project chronologically as I am, it was clear that Ernest - as he was known to his family -...