Budleigh Past and Present

Continued from 2 July 1944    LANCE CORPORAL FRED ALEXIS BEDFORD (1924-44)   7 th Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps   https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/03/ww2-75-2-july-1944-escaping-from.html     Alfred’s Commonwealth War Graves Commission certificate Alfred Edwin Clarke’s case contains many contradictions. His name does not appear on Budleigh Salterton’s War Memorial but his Commonwealth War Graves Commission record, which I found by searching for Budleigh-linked war dead on its database, lists his wife Elizabeth Anne as ‘of Budleigh Salterton, Devon.’ However, that is the only connection that I have found with the town. Yet genealogical records tell us that Alfred married Elizabeth Ann n é e Duckett in 1932, in Chelsea, London. They also tell us that in 1911, Alfred was aged 1, living with his parents, Alfred and Lydia, in Fulham, London. Budleigh parish records of deaths and burials contain no Duckett...

Continued from 21 May 1944 ‘England he loved’: LIEUTENANT COLONEL ADRIAN FORTESCUE PENRHYS EVANS DSO   (1903-44) Green Howards (Yorkshire Regiment) https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/11/ww2-75-21-may-1944-england-he-loved.html   Budleigh Salterton War Memorial at the junction of Coastguard Road and Salting Hill Fred Alexis’ name is recorded on Budleigh’s War Memorial, presumably because he was living in Budleigh in September 1939.   According to the above letter, dated 2 September 1947, from E.J. Witherby, Clerk to the Town Council and Honorary Secretary of the War Memorial Fund, it was decided that the list of names would only include those war dead who were actually resident in Budleigh Salterton at the outbreak of war. However, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission record lists 20-year-old Fred Alexis as the son of Fred and Galy Bedford, of Exmouth. He is not listed on Exmouth War Memorial.   Grave of Albert and Minnie Bedford...