Budleigh Past and Present

Continued from 31 Aug 1944 GUNNER HERBERT JAMES SKINNER (1914-44)            113 th   Field Regiment, the Royal Artillery https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/04/ww2-75-31-august-1944-death-of-black.html       Budleigh war memorial at the junction of Coastguard Road and Salting Hill Leonard was a local man whose name appears on Budleigh Salterton’s War Memorial and the news of his death would have been greeted with much sorrow in the town.   Describing the service and parade held by the local branch of the British Legion on Saturday 11 November 1944, the Exmouth Journal noted that Leonard had been a Legion member for many years, and that the Legion Chairman, Colonel Henry McRae DSO, OBE had referred to the sad news.   The grave of Ellen and Thomas Ley in Block E, Row 10 at St Peter’s Burial Ground, Moor Lane An earlier sadness for the family before the outbreak of war had been the death of Leo...

Continued from 4 August 1943 -  Thanks to a Canadian connection:  SERGEANT JOHN STEPHEN HARRIS (1922-43)    Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, Operational Training Unit (OTU) 42 https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/03/ww2-75-4-august-1943-thanks-to-canadian.html   I did not understand at first why Charles is commemorated on Exmouth’s War Memorial as well as on Budleigh’s.  The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) records both his mother, Jean, and his wife, Katherine, as from Budleigh Salterton. The Devon Heritage website’s war memorials listing tells us that he was born in the town in 1914.   The Southcott family name certainly has a strong association with Devon.  In 1891 there were 199 Southcott families living in the county. This was about 32% of all the recorded Southcotts in the UK, giving Devon in that year  the highest population of Southcott families of any English county. Probably the most famous ...