Budleigh Past and Present

Continued from 1 November 1943  Another Dalditch Camp Tragedy: Marine Arthur John Wilson (1925-43)       https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/01/ww2-75-1-november-1943-another-dalditch.html   Budleigh Salterton War Memorial at the junction of Coastguard Road and Salting Hill For many years Budleigh Salterton was famous as the favourite retirement place of Indian Army officers; the writer and former Budleigh resident R.F. Delderfield referred to it as The Curry. Robert Watson’s family background was very typical of this aspect of our town.   He was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Arthur Davis Watson, OBE, Royal Engineers, and Ethel Douglas Watson. His mother, born in Bengal in 1896 had grown up in India, where her father, John Henry Lace FRS, CIE, FLS (1857-1918) gained a distinguished reputation as a botanist.   From 1881, Lace worked extensively in the Forest Service of India and became its inspector-general of forests...

Continued from 6 September 1943 'At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember him': MARINE JOHN PHILIP RICHARDS (1925-43) https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/11/at-going-down-of-sun-and-in-morning-we.html   The grave of Arthur John Wilson in St Peter’s Burial Ground, Moor Lane, Budleigh Salterton Strangely, only three wartime deaths of servicemen associated with Budleigh Salterton, have been recorded for the year 1943.   Only one name appears on the War Memorial for that year. The two other deaths occurred at Dalditch Camp, and were reported as suicide. Click on the above link, and you can read about the first, that of John Philip Richards.   Tragically, the second Dalditch Camp death would take place two months later. The Western Morning News of 4 November 1943 reported that Arthur John Wilson, a Marine aged 18 from Bromley, Kent, had taken his life three days earlier, on 1 November, ‘while the balance of his mind was dis...

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 ...