WW2 100 - 21 May 1944 - ‘England he loved’: Lieutenant Colonel Adrian Fortescue Penrhys Evans (1903-44)
Continued from 29 April 1944 - ‘He died that others might have a future’:
PRIVATE REGINALD LEONARD CRITCHARD (1921-44) 1st Battalion, Devonshire Regiment
https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/03/ww2-75-29-april-1944-casualty-of-kohima.html
Budleigh Salterton’s War Memorial at the junction of Coastguard Road and Salting Hill. So much more of A.F.P. Evans is known now, thanks to the willingness of his family to share his story
For many years Budleigh Salterton was famous as
the favourite retirement place of military types, particularly of ex-Indian
Army officers. The writer and former Budleigh resident R.F. Delderfield described
them vividly in his autobiography: so recognisable in the town between 1860 and
1945, with their ‘hard blue eyes, fierce moustaches, and mahogany faces’.
Adrian Fortescue Penrhys Evans, who was killed in Italy while serving with the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, was perhaps typical of such men, especially in view of the military tradition in his family. His grandfather, Colonel Henry William Evans, had served in the 9th Regiment of the Bombay Native Infantry, experiencing the First Anglo-Sikh War of 1845-46 and the Indian Mutiny of 1857-58. With his wife, Caroline Leonora Penrice, Colonel Evans had five children: three of them followed military careers, including Adrian’s father, Major George Alfred Penrhys Evans, who served on India’s North West Frontier with the 9th Lancers in the Afghan War of 1879, and later with the 7th Hussars.
This photo shows Arbour Hill
Prison’s Governor, his family and their uniformed staff standing outside their
ivy-covered official residence. The photo was probably taken between 1890 and
1910, and in all likelihood is of Major Evans and his family Image credit: https://jacolette.wordpress.com
Major
Evans and his wife, Cecilia Camilla née Fortescue, then moved to Dublin where
he had been appointed Governor of Arbour Hill Prison. The 1901 Census lists him
and his wife their one-year-old daughter Audrey Fortescue and four female
servants. Two years later, on 19 January 1903, Adrian was born.
Some fascinating photos and news cuttings have emerged from family albums researched by Adrian's grandson Toby. They led me on to other little trails which give an insight into social life at this period. Above, for example, is page 414 from The Lady featuring events of the Dublin Season, including this scene of 'Amateur Theatricals at the Royal Hospital, Dublin'. The actors are Captain Owen-Lewis and his wife, and, far right, Adrian's father Major George Alfred Penrhys Evans. But note that, according to the caption, Major Evans seems to have stepped in to take on a role which would have been played by Mr Eille Norwood.
Wonderful Wikipedia told me that Mr Norwood, born Anthony Edward Brett in 1861, was quite a celebrated English stage actor, director, and playwright best known today for playing Sherlock Holmes in a series of silent films. It seems that Dublin's Royal Hospital was noted for the high standard of its amateur dramatics. In 1886, when a production of Thomas William Robertson's comedy drama 'Caste' was staged, the role of the Marquise de St Maur was played by none other than the Anglo-Irish republican revolutionary, suffragette and actress Maud Gonne, noted for her relationship with the poet W.B. Yeats.
The enthusiasm for amateur dramatics shown by Adrian's father during his time in Dublin would be carried on when he moved to Budleigh Salterton, and shared by Adrian himself during his own career.
Warden House School. The school no longer exists
Image credit: http://whispersandvoices.blogspot.com
Like most children from
his social background he was sent away to boarding school for his early
education. Warden House School was a small
Anglican preparatory school for boys in Upper Deal, Kent. According to a
promotional article of the time, the school was proud of its reputation as an
establishment which avoided the custom of cramming for examinations, which, it
declared ‘often gives a show of learning without any solid or substantial
justification’. Adrian’s father would surely have approved. He would also have been
pleased to note that Mr H.W. Mullins MA, the Principal, was the son of a Lieutenant
General Mullins, of the Royal Engineers, as well as being a graduate of
Magdalen College, Oxford.
Furzedene, on West Hill Lane, Budleigh Salterton. The house was sold for development in about 2018 and has been split into flats
Adrian’s holidays may well have been spent in
Budleigh because at around this time his parents moved from the Governor’s
House at Arbour Hill Prison to 'Furzedene', in Budleigh Salterton. Hidden away on
West Hill Lane, this large detached house on the outskirts of the town, with
its several storeys and set in approximately one acre of grounds, had been
newly constructed and would have seemed a perfect retirement home for the Evans
family.
The grave of Colonel Gunter and his wife at
Powderham
Image
credit: https://images.findagrave.com
Near neighbours in due course would be Colonel
Clarence Preston Gunter OBE, CIE, and his wife Pansy, who lived just across
West Hill Lane in the equally large and imposing house called 'Rosehill'. Like
the Evans family, the Gunters had lived abroad. Colonel Gunter, of the Royal
Engineers, had been appointed Companion, Order of the Indian Empire, for his
work on the 1926 Survey of India.
Here's a photo of 'Furzedene' taken, perhaps, at around the time that Major Evans and his wife moved in.
This photo has been dated as taken at 'Furzedene' in 1907, and, if so, shows us that the Major's enthusiasm for amateur dramatics was undimmed, especially if that is him, third from the right. And it's intriguing to think that scenes like this, performed in the gardens of large Budleigh houses, may have enthused the young artist and playwright Joyce Dennys during her pre-WW1 adolescence in the town. With her parents she had moved to Budleigh in 1904, aged 11.
Later, Adrian’s parents moved to a smaller house at 3 Copplestone Road in the town.
The grave in St Peter's Burial Ground, Budleigh Salterton, of Major George Alfred Penrhys Evans and his wife Cecilia Camillia Evans, Block A Row 13
Parish records indicate that they were living there at the time of their deaths: Major Evans on 9 March 1927, aged 70, and his wife on 27 February 1955, aged 92.
Cheltenham College Image credit:
Wikipedia
Major George Alfred Evans had been educated at Cheltenham College, and the same boarding school with its strong military tradition, would have seemed the perfect choice.
Boyne House, Cheltenham College in the 1920s
Image credit: www.historicengland.org.uk
Boyne House and its pupils in 1918 (top), showing enlarged detail of Adrian below
I can’t help reflecting on what his feelings might have been when this school photo was taken – he is standing, far right, in the back row. The world had just witnessed the horrors of a modern war – ‘the war to end all wars’ – very different from the experiences of his father and grandfather. No doubt many of his school friends had lost family members in the Great War, which was probably not yet over. Did he ever have second thoughts about a military career? Not all his family had gone into the Army. His uncle Oliver Conrad Penrhys Evans had chosen Medicine and would spend the whole of his working life as a Kidderminster GP.
But maybe Adrian is just looking worried because he hasn’t finished writing that essay that he was supposed to hand in to his science master.
Adrian left the College in December 1920, having qualified the previous month for the Infantry syllabus and gaining his Certificate A, obtaining 365 marks in the certificate examination. This Certificate A, pictured above, was a valuable asset to any young man like Adrian intent on a military career: it allowed him to count a certain percentage of the marks towards the necessary total for admission to the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.
Sandhurst Passing Out Parade Image credit:
Wikipedia
Military training at Sandhurst, which Adrian entered in 1920 must surely have changed in the immediate post-WW1 era. As a former Sandhurst lecturer puts it, with another European war seeming impossible at this time, the place returned to its former role as ‘a finishing school for the gentlemen who would run the peacetime Empire’.
Cap badge of the Green Howards
On
1 February 1923, Adrian was appointed from the Royal Military Academy to a
commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the regiment of the Green Howards. Promotion to Lieutenant came two years later,
on 1 February in 1925.
The regiment has a strong association with Yorkshire, with its HQ in that county’s town Richmond, and was frequently known as the Yorkshire Regiment until the 1920s. But it has an interesting Devonian link, having been formed during the 1688 Glorious Revolution from independent companies raised in the county by Colonel Francis Luttrell, to support William III.
And India was the obvious place in the Empire for a young officer to complete his education. Almost immediately after Sandhurst, Adrian found himself posted there with the 1st Battalion of the Green Howards Regiment.
He travelled on HM Troopship Assaye, pictured above. The ship was built in 1899 by Caird & Company, Greenock for the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company as an 'intermediate' passenger service, but employed almost exclusively as a troopship.
Adrian in Madras, now known as Chennai
It’s likely that his experiences with the Battalion at this time would have been shared by a fellow-officer, Colonel William Owen Walton, who was, coincidentally, a former Cheltenham College pupil who had also joined the Green Howards.
Fort St George, in the city formerly known as Madras, where Adrian was based on his arrival in India Image credit: L.vivian.richard; Wikipedia
Younger than Adrian by a few months Colonel Walton was interviewed for an audio recording by the Imperial War Museums in July 1977. Like Adrian, he was posted to India with the 1st Battalion of the Green Howards shortly after passing out from Sandhurst, and like Adrian he had family members who had served with the Indian Army.
Adrian's room at Fort St George
The Adyar Club in 1905. It was described in 1921 as ‘the Ace of Clubs’ and ‘so large that nobody knows or cares whether you are there or not’. Image credit: India Illustrated/Wikipedia
Life in India was in many ways more pleasanter and easy-going than in Britain, recalled Colonel Walton in the IWM audio recording. The Indian servants were trustworthy and there were plenty of sporting opportunities; he himself enjoyed pig-sticking – the sport of boar hunting on horseback – and even schooled horses, making money by selling them on. For social life he remembered the Adyar Club next to the Adyar River, with its 13 acres of golf links, rides, tennis and badminton courts and its twice-monthly dances.
The above photo shows Adrian at Ballari, in Central Southern India, and here, he probably shared some of his fellow-officer’s particular experiences. Colonel Walton recalled that the duties of the Green Howards’ 1st Battalion included supervising the guard at Bellary Prison in where the so-called Moplah prisoners were confined.
Captured Mappila prisoners taken after a battle with British troops. Image credit: Wikimedia
In 1920, over 2,000 rebels – now seen as freedom fighters of the Quit India Movement – had been brought to this former military jail by the British authorities.
He mentioned that some of the prisoners were shackled at their ankles, which, he said ‘struck us as rather primitive’. Colonel Walton recalled that he and fellow-officers did not enjoy being called on by the authorities to deal with civil unrest, but at least British soldiers in India had the advantage of being neutral in conflicts arising from unrest between Muslims and Hindus.
Range Table of the .303-inch Vickers Machine Gun. Numerous editions of this pocket-sized booklet were
published, with all of the information needed for the Vickers Machine Gun,
including calculating direct and indirect fire tasks – depending whether or
not the target is in view. Handwritten on the cover
is Lt A.F.P. Evans 1st Bn The Green Howards
Military training for the Battalion
in India had the advantage of having large open spaces for manoeuvres as
opposed to back home. There was much collaboration
between Indian Army troops and British regiments like the Green Howards on
training exercises.
After India, Adrian's other deployments were in Khartoum from March 1925 to January 1926, and Shanghai, from January to October in the following year.
Here he is in Khartoum, holding some cats.
The serious reason for Adrian's posting to the Sudan was as reinforcement to the Sudan Defence Force, which was a locally-recruited British-led force. Its main duties were internal security: assisting the police in the event of unrest, including restraining inter-tribal violence, cattle raiding and slave trading. The SDF was also at hand in case of natural disaster. In such a vast country, companies could be detached on garrison duties far from the actual Corps headquarters.
Other duties in Sudan at this time for Adrian and British troops - they included the 1st Battalion of The Dorsetshire Regiment as well as the Green Howards - meant providing entertainment for the European audiences.
This was a programme of music for Easter Day, 12 April 1925, in All Saints' Cathedral, Khartoum, performed by the bands of the Green Howards and the Dorsetshires. It could have taken place in any English city.
Later in 1925, the Green Howards put on their own special musical performance at the British Barracks in Khartoum.
I noticed that Lieutenant Evans was responsible for the song 'Too Many Rings Around Rosie', following in that family tradition of providing entertainment for which Major Evans was noted in Dublin and at 'Furzedene' in Budleigh.
Among Adrian's papers from this period is this letter in what was thought to be Arabic. Not so, said my Oriental languages experts: 'This is Indian Persian from a hundred years ago. Persian was the official language of business for most parts of India for centuries. What we can confirm so far is that the letter makes reference “Evans Sahib” and it is dated 1930. Gathering all available clues together at this point, it appears most likely to have been issued in British India and appears to be some kind of pass or letter of instruction. It is certainly official rather than social'.
'On landing at Shanghai the baggage officer got busy' is Adrian's handwritten caption for this photo
In 1927, the outbreak of conflict between nationalists and communists in China created international concern about the safety of the large European population in Shanghai. Together with Japan, the United States, France and Italy, Britain dispatched troops from Britain, Malta and India to form the Shanghai Defence Force. King's College was requisitioned to be the quarters and hospital for the Shanghai Defence Force from February to December 1927. Royal Air Force China Command at Hong Kong was established to administer Royal Air Force units in the region. After 1928 this force was reduced gradually but British troops did not finally leave Shanghai until 1939.
Back in England, in April 1930, Adrian was based with the Green Howards at Maida Barracks in Aldershot, as we see from the address on his driving licence. That year, from 8 August until 1 September, the 1st Battalion took part in the guarding of Buckingham Palace, being based at Wellington Barracks in Westminster during this time.
On 19 January 1935, Adrian was promoted to Captain following his successful results in an examination: he scored 82% on Part I – ‘Organization and regimental duties in peace’.
He may have spent time in more overseas postings in places like Malta and Palestine where the Green Howards were in 1936 and 1938, and he took on administrative responsibilities from 14 March that year when he was appointed Staff Captain.
But he was also enjoying life as a husband and father. Here he is with his son Nicholas in the garden at 'Furzedene'.
Adrian with his wife Renée and Nicholas
When war was declared on 3 September 1939, the 1st Battalion was based at Catterick Camp in North Yorkshire. The Battalion was sent to France in 1939 as part of the British Expeditionary Force but early in the next year was called on to take action in Scandinavia, Adrian having been promoted to Major on 1 February 1940.
Soldiers are issued with cold weather gear in 1940. The 1st Battalion re-equip, and on 24th April embark at Rosyth to sail for Åndalsnes on the west coast of Norway.
Image: Green Howards Trust.
On 9 April 1940, German forces invaded Norway, and around 750 men from the 1st Battalion of the Green Howards sailed to Norway as part of an urgent taskforce. They were part of an Allied force of 38,000 troops, including French and Polish forces, who joined 55,000 Norwegian soldiers to try to repel the German land invasion. A major aim was to stop the Germans from shipping iron ore out of the Norwegian port of Narvik.
A flight of German Ju 87 Bs Stuka dive bombers over Poland in
1939. These were among the aircraft which targeted the Green Howards in Norway.
Image credit: Heinrich Hoffmann/Wikimedia
The Battle of Otta was a confrontation between the Allied forces
between 25 April and 3 May. For 24 hours, on 28 April, the relatively lightly armed
Green Howards held back seven German battalions, Heinkel and Stuka dive bombers
and heavy artillery. Against overwhelming odds, the entire British force,
flanked by Norwegian ski troops, retreated to Dombås on the coast to
be eventually picked up by the Royal Navy. A total of 595 men were evacuated on
2 May 1940, but 151 were missing. By 10
June, the whole of Norway had been occupied. It had taken 62 days.
A fellow-officer in the Green Howards at this time
was the professional cricketer Hedley Verity, who played for Yorkshire and
England between 1930 and 1939. He had been commissioned as a Second Lieutenant
in the 1st Battalion of the Green Howards in January 1940 and was later
promoted to Captain.
Further training was needed in the face of the well equipped enemy forces that Adrian and regiments like the Green Howards had encountered in Norway. He remained with the regiment, but a reorganisation took place in 1940, with the formation of the 11th, 12th and 13th Battalions.
Adrian was appointed 2nd in Command of the 11th Battalion on 15 February 1941, and a year later, on 9 January 1942, was given full command and appointed Acting Lieutenant-Colonel. Further promotion came on 9 April when he was appointed Temporary Lieutenant-Colonel.
Two Yorkshire and England cricketers, Second Lieutenant Norman W D Yardley (left) and Captain Hedley Verity discussing tactics during an exercise at Omagh, Northern Ireland, while serving with the 1st Battalion, Green Howards (Princess Alexandra of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment) in July 1941 Image credit: Lieutenant J.R. Bainbridge Collection of the Imperial War Museums
In the Spring of 1941, the 1st Battalion of the Green Howards moved to Omagh in Northern Ireland. The 11th Battalion had various postings in England during 1942-43.
A turning-point in the war was coming with the
concerted and organised assault by the Allies on Fortress Europe in 1943.
British
troops wade ashore during the invasion of Sicily, 10 July 1943. Image credit:
Wikipedia
Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, started in early July. Meticulously planned from places which included underground bunkers in Malta, it benefited from knowledge gained at actions such as Operations Jubilee at Dieppe and Torch in North Africa.
Soldiers from the 1st Battalion of the Green Howards advancing through the rubble
in Catania, Sicily, July 1943
Collection of the Imperial War Museums
By 17 August 1943, the Allies
controlled Sicily and were ready to continue their advance north through Europe
with the invasion of mainland Italy.
Badge of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers
As part of the reorganisation of forces ready for the move northwards, Adrian was given command of the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Fusiliers – also known as the City of London Regiment with effect from 1 December 1943. He had relinquished command of the 11th Battalion of the Green Howards two months earlier on 21 Sept 1943.
A luxury liner owned by Cunard and designed to appeal to American tourists in the mid-1920s, RMS Scythia became a troopship on 1 November 1940 and took part in the 1942 Allied invasion of North Africa Image credit: Wikipedia
The new battalion under Adrian’s command
was already in North Africa, at Djidjelli, on the coast between Algiers and
Tunis. It was soon reinforced by 265
additional soldiers from the 11th, 12th and 17th
Battalions of the Royal Fusiliers, and by 84 from the Welch Regiment, before
being ordered to move by train to a transit camp at Algiers. This was in
readiness for a transfer on 26 December by the troopship Scythia to Egypt,
where two months of exercises took place.
Royal Navy beach parties and commandos training with landing craft and communicating with other craft by means of flag signals at HMS Saunders, at Kabrit, on the Bitter Lakes, in Egypt, June 1943. Image credit: Wikipedia/Imperial War Museums
North of the Gulf of Suez, on the Great
Bitter Lake, was the Combined Training Centre also known as HMS Saunders where
troops were given ‘wet’ training in mock assaults.
HMS Saunders, Kabrit,
Egypt, 1945 by Herbert Hastings McWilliams
Image credit: www.wavynavy.blogspot.com
The ‘dry’ training included the use of rope ladders, scrambling nets and ‘bangalore torpedoes’ – explosive charges in tubes to clear obstacles.
Meanwhile, Adrian was making an excellent impression on his fellow-officers in the new battalion. Here is an extract from a letter, dated 4 January, that the Reverend Paul Wansey, the Battalion's Chaplain wrote to his own family:
'I like our new C.O., Lt. Col. Evans. He has introduced a new game, "Poker Dice". It sounds dreadful, but we only play for matches and it is great fun. Bridge is always played for money. I am so pleased that they are finding at last that it is more according to the true sporting instinct to play just for the game itself and the conversation is extraordinarily clear and pleasant, compared with many other messes. It all seems to depend on the one or two dominant personalities'.
On 29 February 1944, the 2nd Battalion embarked for Italy in the troopships Sobieski and Derbyshire.
German prepared defensive lines in Italy south of Rome 1943-44 Image credit: Stephen Kirrage/Wikipedia
Progress through southern Italy was rapid
until Allied forces met the Winter Line, a series of German and Italian military fortifications
across central Italy commanded by Field Marshal Albert
Kesselring. It ran from the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian Sea, with the
medieval Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino as its most prominent feature. The 2nd
Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, led by Adrian, was at the forefront in the Battle
of Monte Cassino, a struggle which continued for 123 days during which Allied
forces sustained more than double the number of enemy casualties.
Monte Cassino in ruins after Allied bombing in February 1944
A low aerial view of the Monastery showing its complete destruction. 11 -18 May 1944. Collection of the Imperial War Museums
The rebuilt monastery of Monte Cassino
Image credit Wikipedia
The battle was a costly series of four assaults by the Allies between 17 January and 18 May against the Winter Line in Italy held by Axis forces during the Italian Campaign of World War II. The intention was a breakthrough to Rome. Repeated pinpoint artillery attacks on Allied assault troops caused their leaders to conclude that the monastery, on the so-called Gustav Line, was being used by the Germans as an observation post, at the very least. Fears escalated along with casualties and in spite of a lack of clear evidence that the monastery was being used by the enemy, it was marked for destruction.
For the Allied invading forces, seizing the monastery took on a special importance. One of Adrian’s officers, Major Michael Gibson-Horrocks, who was wounded in the assault, explained why in a tape-recorded interview for the Leeds-based Second World War Experience Centre. It was, he said, ‘one of the great advantages for the Germans against our morale, because every single soldier who served in Cassino was conscious of being overlooked from this monastery at all times’.
The town of Cassino shrouded in black smoke during the Allied barrage on 15 March 1944. Over 1,250 tons of bombs were dropped on this occasion. Collection of the Imperial War Museums
On 15 February American bombers dropped 1,400 tons of high explosives, creating widespread damage. The raid failed to achieve its objective, as German paratroopers then occupied the rubble and established excellent defensive positions amid the ruins.
Envelope of the airmail letter dated 9 May 1944
For Adrian the war at this stage must have seemed particularly desperate as the two sides pounded each other in a relentless, murderous fight to the death amidst the monastery ruins. Casualties mounted as grimly as they had done twenty or so years earlier in the trenches of Flanders.
Clyst Cottage, the house that Adrian and his wife bought in Budleigh Salterton. The house has changed its name and its appearance since this photo was taken
In the midst of the exhausting, seemingly endless hell of battle
there was the hope that peace would eventually come, and the comforting thought
of his wife Renée, safe in their cottage in Budleigh, the seaside
town that he had got to know so well as a boy at his parents’ home on West Hill
Lane.
Otter Head, Budleigh Salterton: The picture postcard view from what was 'Clyst Cottage' has not changed
‘England he loved’ was the inscription requested by Renée for his headstone, but perhaps it could equally well have been ‘Budleigh he loved’, the town where he would have settled. ‘I think about you such a lot in the little house – I must say I’m glad we got it,’ he wrote to Renée in an airmail letter dated 9 May, and addressed to Clyst Cottage.
Yet at the back of his mind he was realistic enough to envisage the worst, and painfully aware of how the dream could be broken.
Paul Wansey continued in his letter:
‘On the night before we went into the battle, he and I were alone. He suddenly said: “Paul, if anything happens, you will write to Renée, won’t you?” His eyes filled with tears. I don’t think he had a premonition, but he knew the danger. He did not give me any message. Perhaps that was my fault, for I did not want him to think of such things’.
On 13 May, a brigade attack in which Adrian and his battalion played a leading role was launched against the German defences of Monte Cassino. ‘DSO for Gallantry in Italy’ was the headline in the Yorkshire Post newspaper which highlighted the ‘cool and level-headed leadership’ displayed by this Green Howards officer. He was, according to the DSO citation, an inspiration to his company commanders.
‘After capturing their objective, Lt-Col Evans organised his battalion to withstand heavy enemy counter-attacks, going forward himself to see that all the company’s defences were co-ordinated, His conduct was beyond praise, and the successful action of the battalion was largely due to his untiring and most competent directions’.
On 16 May, soldiers from the Polish II Corps launched one of the final assaults on the German defensive position as part of a twenty-division assault along a twenty-mile front. Two days later, on 18 May, a Polish flag followed by the British Union Jack were raised over the ruins.
Yet enemy salvoes continued to fall, and on 21 May, the unthinkable happened for Adrian’s family and friends. Paul Wansey recorded the sad event:
‘When the shells came down I flung myself into the
ditch. When I looked up, Adrian was lying in the road. I went to him, and he
smiled, but he did not say a word. He became unconscious almost at once.’
The Battalion History records additional details of the incident. ‘Casualties were suffered and the Commanding Officer remained behind to tend and cheer the wounded, and to ensure the identification and burial of the dead. It was not until the Battalion had arrived at their rest area at Calvisi that the men were stunned by the news that the Commanding Officer had himself been killed just as he was stepping into his jeep after completing this typically thoughtful and unselfish task.’
Four days after Adrian's death, on 25 May, the German Senger Line collapsed. The defenders were finally driven from their positions, but at a high cost. The capture of Monte Cassino resulted in 55,000 Allied casualties, with German losses being far fewer, estimated at around 20,000 killed and wounded.
A cross marks Adrian’s grave shortly after
his death at Monte Cassino
On 22 November 1945, Renée received a letter informing her that
her husband had been moved from the temporary cemetery where he had been
previously buried to Grave No. 20 in Row C of Plot 12 in the Cassino Military
Cemetery.
The Cassino War cemetery Image credit: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
A total of 4,271 Commonwealth servicemen of the Second World War are buried or commemorated at Cassino War Cemetery. 289 of the burials are unidentified.
Photo of Adrian, reproduced from the History of the 2nd Battalion The Royal Fusiliers, published in 1946
Adrian was succeeded as Commanding Officer of the 2nd Battalion of The Royal Fusiliers by Lieutenant Colonel Charles Avalon Lea Shipley, a fellow officer and friend who wrote this glowing tribute in a letter of 24 May, shortly after Adrian’s death:
‘He was an absolutely first class man in every way. He had a most charming personality, was loved by everybody, and in battle he was simply magnificent. He seemed to be completely without fear, and his example to everybody was absolutely superb. His inspiring leadership will always be remembered by every man in the Battalion, and although he was not originally a Royal Fusilier, his loss is a very sad blow to the Regiment.'
In recognition of his gallantry at Cassino, Adrian was appointed to be a member of the Distinguished Service Order, effective from 20 May 1944.
Later, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers offered their own tribute in this scroll presented to Adrian’s widow. By then, Renée had remarried, to their friend Canon Paul Wansey, Chaplain to the 2nd Battalion the Royal Fusiliers and subsequently Honorary Chaplain to the Regiment. Later he would become Rector of Woodbridge, Suffolk.
This photo of a family gathering outside West Wickham Church, Suffolk, to celebrate a 70th birthday shows, far right, Renée and Paul Wansey. Image credit: Nick Delves
Adrian’s story lives on. Within a few days of writing these words, in November 2020, I learnt more about Major Michael Gibson-Horrocks, one of Adrian’s company commanders whom I've already quoted and who for many years led visiting parties of veterans and history students to WW2 battlefields. 'He would invariably go to Adrian’s grave and talk to him, and salute if he was wearing his beret,' I was told. 'He regarded Adrian as a close friend. Very loyal to him.'
I could not have completed this profile in such detail without the help of Adrian’s family who kindly made available copies of documents and photos like the ones you see here.
This online memorial for Budleigh’s WW2 war dead will
be open to receiving similar material if families discover the site by chance, and
feel that they would like to add such material. As the memorial is online, photos
and text can be easily added.
The next post is for LANCE CORPORAL FRED ALEXIS BEDFORD (1924-44) who died on 2 July 1944 in Normandy, while serving with the 7th Battalion of the Royal Tank Regiment. You can read about him at
https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/03/ww2-75-2-july-1944-escaping-from.html
These ‘orphans’ are listed on Budleigh Salterton War
Memorial, but have not been identified. Their first names,
date of death and service numbers are not known.
They are recorded on the Devon Heritage website as
'Not yet confirmed’
If you know anything which
would help to identify them,
please contact Michael
Downes on 01395 446407.
F.E. Newcombe
P. Pritchard
F.J. Watts
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