WW2 100 – 2 July 1944 – Escaping from Singapore, to die in France: Lance Corporal Fred Alexis Bedford (1924-44), 7th Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps

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 who died 23 Feb 1974 and 8 March 1978, aged 87 and 88 respectively. Minnie was living at 6 Frewins at the time of her death

I wondered whether Albert and Minnie Bedford whose graves are in St Peter’s Burial Ground, on Moor Lane in Budleigh Salterton, might be related, but no links have been discovered so far.  

Various other clues from the internet pointed in different directions. There was a reference to the Will of Fred Alexis Bedford, of Rolle Hotel Budleigh Salterton. It noted that he died on war service and that his effects were £585 12s. and 8d, which he left to his mother. Administration of the Will was at Llandudno on 9 December by Galy Bedford (wife of Fred Bedford). But Llandudno is nowhere near Budleigh.

Even further afield was Malaya, which, according to a document on the Forces War Records website, was where Fred Alexis was born.

But, on an impulse, I googled the words ‘Malaya’ and ‘Galy Bedford’ and found this entry on an alphabetical list compiled by the Malayan Volunteers Group:

BEDFORD, Mrs Galy   Evacuated to UK. Wife of F. [civilian internee]

Brief notes, but they suggested a whole new scenario far from quiet Budleigh Salterton. I imagined the impact on families like the Bedfords caused by Japan’s sudden entry into WW2 in December 1941. British people living in Malaya and Singapore shocked by news of the sinking by Japanese warplanes of two fine battleships, the Repulse and the Prince of Wales on 10 December 1941. 

You can read about that disaster for the Royal Navy in which two servicemen with Budleigh links died, serving on the same ship, here and here

The comfortable colonial lifestyle of Europeans in the Far East was in pieces.

On the website of the Malayan Volunteers Group you can find the stories told by British residents of the colony like Mrs Bedford and her family. 

How the gardener in Kathleen Reeve’s family home – the ‘Kubun’ was ordered to dig a large trench at the end of the garden, under some rubber trees, and how, in the event of an air raid, the servants should get into the trench with their families along with the British families of women and children. 

Of how they heard rumours that the Japanese were infiltrating  the northern part of Malaya through the rubber plantations on bicycles and landing in small groups by boat along the coast. How they soon realised that they would have to leave their beautiful homes and faithful servants, and flee from the invaders. 

And how ‘the Navy, Army and Air Force had evacuated their women and children from Singapore by ship, but the Government did nothing for us’. There’s more at www.malayanvolunteersgroup.org.uk

You can read elsewhere on my blog about the impact of the Japanese occupation on European residents in China, here and on the island of Java here

The story of the Malayan Volunteers was very much part of Fred Alexis’ story, which is little known here in Budleigh. The collapse of British rule in Malaya was so total and so traumatic for families like the Bedfords that it deserves to be included in this WW2 project, alongside the tragedy of the death of their only son in France.  And perhaps some members of the family may be willing to help fill in any gaps or correct any errors in my telling of the story.

The first of the Volunteer Forces of Malaya originated as early as 1854, at the time of the Crimean War, with the creation of the Singapore Volunteer Rifles Corps. Events such as the Boer War of 1899-1902 and WW1 led to a rapid increase in the enrolment of Volunteers. By the 1930s, according to the Malayan Volunteers Group website, over 8,000 men were serving in the Straits Settlements, which included Singapore, and in the Federated Malay States.  They remained in their civilian employment and received military training at night and on weekends, on the lines of the British Territorial Army.  

 

Jonathan Moffat's book Moon Over Malaya: The 2nd Argylls and Plymouth Argyll Royal Marines in Malaya and Singapore, was originally published in 1999 

Thanks to historian Jonathan Moffat, who kindly investigated the Malayan Volunteers Group archives for me, I discovered that Fred Bedford, the father of Fred Alexis, had been very much involved with these ‘territorials’ during his time in Malaya. 

Known as ‘Beddy’ to his friends according to a 1954 obituary in MALAYA [British Association of Malaya] magazine, he was a Yorkshiremen who had arrived in Singapore in 1913 as a Supervising Engineer at the Singapore Gas Works.  

 

Badge of the Singapore Volunteer Corps  Image credit: Wikipedia

At the outbreak of WW1 he joined the Singapore Volunteer Corps hoping to return home and fight, but the authorities decided otherwise and he remained at his civilian post until he returned home briefly in the post-war period. Then, from 1922 until WW2 came another period of work in Singapore, during which he again served in what had become known as the Straits Settlement Volunteer Force (SSVF).  

Galy has been identified as Galy Alexeievna née Gorbounoff, from a Russian family. She came over to the UK in 1919 with her brother, Valentin Alexeievitch, and her widowed mother, Olga Dimitrievna. They landed in Liverpool, having travelled from Japan, and headed for East Grinstead in Sussex. It was here that Valentin Alexeievitch, whose occupation is given as exporter, died a few months later and where Fred and Galy were married in 1922. The immigration and emigration records show that she left the UK for Singapore on 3 February 1923

According to a notice in The Straits Times newspaper, Fred Alexis was born in the following year at Singapore Maternity Hospital, on 22 May 22 1924.

Galy made a return visit to the UK on 29 November 1938. This may have been because of her mother’s illness. Olga had moved to London and was living in South Kensington at that time according to data from the electoral roll. She died later in 1938 on the way to Westminster Hospital, leaving a small sum of money to her daughter.

In the Singapore Fortress Company Fred reached the rank of Major, responsible for Beach Defences (Searchlight Section), and serving as a Royal Engineers Volunteer. But by the beginning of 1939 he had retired from that post and transferred to the reserve because of pressure of work. 

War had broken out in Europe, but no sense of an impending crisis or threat of invasion in the Far East comes from the news sheets informing Company members of such moves of personnel. 

Yet the Volunteers kept up their training schedules.  ‘All ranks did their respirator drill and enjoyed the fun in the gas-chamber, but some of us are a little doubtful of our efficiency with binoculars and telephone during a gas attack’, reads a paragraph in one of the news sheets.  

 

A 1941 photo of a Malay Singapore Royal Engineers Volunteer SRE[V] Fortress Company man.  Image credit: Imperial War Museums

However efficient the Volunteers’ training might have been Allied forces were not prepared for the speed and aggression with which the Japanese 25th Army moved following the bombing of Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941. The next day, enemy forces attacked from Indochina, moving into northern Malaya and Thailand by amphibious assault on 8 December 1941 and rapidly progressing southwards.

The turmoil caused by the invasion which had such an impact on the Bedford family and thousands of others is well described on the Malayan Volunteers Group website:

‘As the first bombs fell on Singapore, after the invasion by the Japanese of northern Malaya on 8 December 1941, civilian families began to evacuate their women and children by ship back to England, India, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.

Because of the unrealistically positive official statements by the authorities many families delayed this move and so, through December and January, evacuations continued at a modest pace, until panic set in by early February 1942 when it was obvious that the Japanese troops were almost unstoppable.

Once the Japanese made a successful landing on Singapore island on 8 February 1942 there were long lines of European and Eurasian families queuing each day attempting to obtain an exit pass and passenger ticket at the shipping office set up in the suburbs of Singapore - usually unsuccessfully because of bureaucratic incompetence and with the result that many ships were leaving half empty! The result was that on 11 February 1942, when an official directive was issued to clear all ships from Singapore Harbour there ensued several days of absolute chaos at the wharves as thousands of women, children and men struggled to pass the sentries and board launches to take them to some 46 ships left in the harbour.

This was occurring under constant shell fire and bombing by the Japanese who were by then on the outskirts of central Singapore - the city was in flames, hundreds of bodies lay in the streets and the city was full of despondent troops who had left their posts.

During 11-13 February 1942, several thousand women, children, babies, civilian men and service personnel boarded the ships remaining in the harbour bound for either Freemantle or Batavia (Jakarta). Most were caught by the bombs of the Japanese airforce or the shells of the powerful destroyers and cruisers of the Japanese Navy as they threaded their way through the islands of the Riau and Lingga Archipelagos and through the Banka Strait. Of the 46 ships which left in this last loose convoy only six ships made it to safety, including the SS Empire Star, SS Gorgon and converted merchantman HMS Scott Harley.

The death toll was horrendous and most of the survivors of the ships which were sunk spent the rest of the war in the privation and horrors of Japanese internment camps in Sumatra where up to 30 percent died in some camps.’

Source: https://www.malayanvolunteersgroup.org.uk/singapore-evacuation-ships.html

 

 

Trent College, pictured above, has been an independent boarding school since 1868. Image credit: www.boardingschoolsadvice.com

My Budleigh friend Carolyn John discovered a 1939 record listing Fred Alexis as resident at Trent College, a boarding school in Long Eaton, near Nottingham. The School’s Development and Alumni Officer Ann Randell kindly confirmed that he had joined Trent College as a pupil in 1936, being placed in Hanbury House. In 1941 he was an Non Commissioned Officer (NCO) in the Junior Training Corps and in 1942, his final year at school, he became Head of Hanbury House.  

Galy Bedford was certainly among the civilian evacuees who reached safety after the occupation, but we do not know which ship she boarded and whether she was accompanied by her son. It is likely that she was among the many people evacuated from Singapore around 31 January 1942.

 

A column of smoke from burning oil tanks of Singapore Naval Base can be seen 14 miles away rises above the deserted streets of Singapore city. Image credit: Wikipedia

The fighting in Singapore lasted from 8 to 15 February 1942, after two months during which Japanese forces had advanced down the Malayan Peninsula, forcing a British surrender.

 

Victorious Japanese troops march through Fullerton Square, Singapore. This is photograph HU 2787 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums 

Prime Minister Winston Churchill called it the ‘worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history’.

On 17 February 1942, three days after the official surrender of Singapore, all British civilians of European descent were required to report to the Padang – an open playing field area in central Singapore. After temporary accommodation, on 6 March, they were marched to Changi Goal, a grim concrete building in the eastern part of the city, completed in 1936. Although built to house 600 inmates, approximately 2,500 civilians were eventually confined there. Internees were separated by gender. No contact between husbands and wives was permitted for the first 15 months of internment, with extremely limited opportunities thereafter.

 

Internees at Sime Road Camp line up to receive a meal outside one of the camp huts. Fred Bedford would have been among them. Image credit: Imperial War Museums

In May 1944, civilian internees were moved out of Changi to a camp at Sime Road, to make way for POWs who had survived constructing the Burma Railway. Approximately 1,100 more people were interned at this time.

Meanwhile, back in England, Fred Alexis had joined the 7^th Battalion of the Royal Tank Regiment.

 

The Rolle Hotel in 1913 Image credit: Nick Loman Collection

In 1942, he would have been aged 18 and able to enlist. Had he been evacuated from Singapore with his mother? Did the pair choose to live in Budleigh because of family connections? Is that why Fred Alexis’ address is given as The Rolle Hotel according to the documents relating to his Will?

The 7th Battalion of the Royal Tank Regiment was part of the Royal Armoured Corps. It originally saw action in WW1 as G Battalion, Tank Corps in 1917. During WW2, as part of the 1st Army Tank Brigade, it served in France in May 1940, alongside the 4th Royal Tank Regiment and the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division during the Battle of Dunkirk.

Following the Dunkirk evacuation, when most of its vehicles were abandoned, the Battalion was sent overseas in December 1940 to be part of the British Western Desert Force in Egypt. It contained Matilda infantry tanks and supported the 11^th  Indian Infantry Brigade of the 4^th Indian Infantry Division. There were notable successes in the opening stages of Operation Compass, when British forces gained a decisive victory in Libya and Egypt. On 9 December 1940, the Royal Tank Regiment attacked and destroyed the Italian Maletti Group of medium tanks and tankettes at the Nibeiwa Camp in Egypt. On the same day, the 7^th Battalion also supported the attack of the 11^th Brigade on Italian positions at the Tummar camps, and participated in the successful attacks on the Italian-held fortress of Bardia in January 1941.

However the Battalion’s luck changed in mid-1942 when it was captured at Tobruk during the Battle of Gazala, part of the First Battle of El Alamein. Tobruk was surrendered to Italian and German forces on 21 June 1942.

The regiment was reconstituted in 1943, with the renaming of the 10^th Battalion of the Royal Tank Regiment on 22 February as the 7^th Battalion. Up to early 1942, in the war in North Africa, the Matilda proved highly effective against Italian and German tanks, although vulnerable to the larger calibre and medium calibre anti-tank guns. A few Matildas of the 7^th Battalion of the Royal Tank Regiment  were present during the Battle of Crete in May 1941 and all of them were lost.

The Churchill Mark VII tank  Image credit: Wikipedia

The first Churchill tanks began rolling off the production line in June 1941. Because of its hasty development, there had been little testing and the Churchill was plagued with mechanical faults, but by 1944 these had been remedied in the Mark VII version. With much more armour than the earlier versions it had the ability to withstand massive amounts of punishment and could cross terrain obstacles that most other tanks of its era could not.  Its crew of five consisted of commander, gunner, loader/radio operator, driver, and co-driver/hull gunner.

 

General Sir Bernard Montgomery in 1943 Image credit: Wikipedia

The British commander, General Sir Bernard Montgomery, famously displaying a tank regiment badge on his beret, found himself in battle for the second time against Germany’s Erwin Rommel. He had no doubt that tank battalions like the 7^th Royal Tank Regiment would play a crucial role in achieving victory in Europe.   

 

A Crusader I tank emerges from a tank landing craft on 26 April 1942 during tests of a portable concrete roadway laid on a beach. Image credit: photograph H 19057 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums (collection no. 4700-37)

Well before Fred Alexis joined the Royal Tank Regiment, preparations were being made for amphibious landings as part of Operation Overlord, the invasion of German-occupied Europe. The failed Allied raid at Dieppe in August 1942 exposed how difficult it was to land vehicles and men during an amphibious invasion and to break through German coastal defences. Specialised armour was needed to get across soft sand and shingle and through beach obstacles.

Churchill tanks were among those which could be adapted for specialised use.  In early 1943, the 79th Armoured Division under the command of Major-General Sir Percy Hobart was given responsibility for developing equipment and tactics to perform specialised tasks in support of ground troops on and after D-Day. Not only did Hobart improve on existing designs, he created entirely new technologies. The armoured vehicles of the 79th became widely known as 'Hobart's Funnies'.

Image credit: Imperial War Museums

The 'Bobbin' carpet layer, pictured above, was a Churchill Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineer (AVRE) adapted to lay reinforced matting on soft beach surfaces that could not otherwise support the weight of armoured vehicles or other heavy equipment. The matting allowed these vehicles to drive across the difficult terrain.

Churchill Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineer (AVRE) with Spigot mortar in Kleve, Germany, 12 February 1945. Image credit: Imperial War Museums

The Churchill AVRE (Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineer) was a modified Churchill tank fitted with a Petard spigot mortar, designed primarily to demolish steel and concrete structures, such as bunkers and gun emplacements. Specialised equipment could be added to the AVRE to enable it to perform other tasks.

 

The Churchill AVRE's main weapon was a 29cm Petard spigot mortar. It fired a 40-pound bomb known as the 'Flying Dustbin'. Image credit: Imperial War Museums

These unusual vehicles played an important role in the D-Day landings, the Battle of Normandy and the campaign in north-west Europe.

 

Cargo being put ashore on one of the invasion beaches, at low tide during the first days of the invasion of Normandy in June, 1944. Barrage balloons are overhead and a US Army ‘half-track’ convoy is forming up on the beach, Image credit: Wikipedia 

The Normandy landings of 6 June 1944 had begun the liberation of France, laying the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front. However it took almost a week for five beachheads to be established, and major towns like Carentan, St. Lô and Bayeux remained under German occupation. Caen, a major objective, would not be captured until 21 July.  

 

The 7^th Battalion’s Churchill tanks seen here in Gosport on 14 June. Image credit: www.4and7royaltankregiment.com

On 11 June, Fred Alexis and the 7^th Battalion’s Churchill tanks started their move to the marshalling area in Gosport, on the south coast of Hampshire. After five days of preparation the unit, complete with its 44 officers and 747 other ranks, was ready to move to the embarkation area.

 

D-day assault routes into Normandy. Image credit: Wikipedia

Sunday 18 June at 4.15 am saw the start of the laborious day-long process of waterproofing and loading tanks on board tank landing craft (TLCs) and tank landing ships (LSTs). Finally, at 9.00 pm, they set sail. The 7^th Battalion war diary notes that the sea was very calm, but by 10.00 am the following day when they arrived off Juno beach at Courseulles-sur-mer, it was too rough to land, and craft were being driven by strong winds. For a few days the majority of the craft had to wait, but on 22 June the landing was complete.   

All except one! The ‘funnies’ were ingenious but had not been designed to deal with the occasional piece of enemy sea defences. Six Churchill tanks were lost when a TLC hit a floating mine. Two officers were wounded but rejoined the unit.    

 

A Churchill tank of 7th Royal Tank Regiment, 31st Tank Brigade, supporting infantry of 8th Royal Scots during Operation Epsom, 28 June 1944. Image credit: Major Stewart, No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit - This is photograph B-6124 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums (collection no. 4700-29)

Operation Epsom, also known as the First Battle of the Odon, was the British offensive led by Lieutenant-General Sir Richard O’Connor, to cross the River Odon to the west of Caen and seize the city in the early stages of Operation Overlord. For the offensive, O’Connor had 60,000 troops, 600 tanks and over 700 guns at his disposal. His forces included the 15th (Scottish) and 43rd (Wessex) Divisions, the 11th Armoured Division, plus the 4^th Armoured and 31^st Tank Brigades, the latter including the 7^th Battalion of the Royal Tank Regiment.

 

The Battle for Caen.  Image credit: Wikipedia

For Fred Alexis and the 7^th Battalion, Operation Epsom began almost immediately after the landing with reconnaissance for an attack on the village of Cheux.

The plan had been well anticipated by the enemy. A fortnight earlier, on 8 June, Rommel had ordered the SS Panzer-Grenadierregiment 26, part of the SS Hitler Youth Panzer-Division, to move into the area, visiting it himself the same day.

The attack began early on 26 June, with units of the 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division advancing behind a rolling artillery barrage. Air cover was sporadic for much of the operation, because poor weather in England forced the last-minute cancellation of bomber support.

 

An ammunition lorry of 11th Armoured Division explodes on 26 June 1944 after being hit by mortar fire during Operation Epsom. Image credit: Sergeant Laing No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit. This is photograph B 6017 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums (collection no. 4700-29)

Accompanied by the Battalion’s tanks, the 15th (Scottish) Division made steady progress and by the end of the first day had overrun much of the German outpost line, although some difficulties remained in securing the flanks.

Cheux was secured by 11.00 am, and the Regiment pushed forward towards Grainville-sur-Odon. However, nine tanks were lost on the first day of the offensive, destroyed in minefields.

 

A German Waffen-SS Soldier reloads an 81mm mortar. Image credit: Wikipedia  

Snipers and mortar fire caused an increasing number of casualties. German forces used mortars extensively and they allegedly accounted for 70% of British casualties in Normandy.

In fighting which resulted in a severe loss of life on both sides over the following two days, a foothold was secured across the River Odon and efforts were made to expand this, by capturing tactically valuable points and moving up the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division.

By 29 June, German counter-attacks using some 250 tanks, had succeeded in halting the Allied advance. The bocage landscape of Normandy, with its narrow lanes and high hedgerows, was particularly difficult for Battalion, and losses mounted steadily.  

To quote from a Normandy veteran, Dr Michael Lewis, whom I interviewed in 1995: ‘The Germans had very cleverly dug in their tanks in the bocage countryside, high hedges and ditches, and very easy to hide a tank. They were very difficult to take because they were hidden from view and they had a good field of fire, and that was really why the advance was so slow. We never experienced a major breakthrough by the tanks – the armoured divisions were the ones that had terrific casualties. The Regiment was badly affected. We lost a lot of people, officers and men killed and many wounded, so by the end of the Normandy bridgehead, about three months, we were relatively small. A battalion which went in 800 or 900 strong was probably down to 200.’

The 7th Battalion war diary, kept by its Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel George Gaisford, notes for 29 June: ‘Objective gained during the morning but could not be consolidated. Enemy opposition increased during the afternoon and objective changed hands frequently.’ At 6.00 pm, a strong enemy counter-attack was mounted by the 1st SS Panzer Division, gaining some ground and 12 of the Battalion’s tanks were lost.  

According to Sir Laurence New’s History of the 4th and 7th Battalions of the Royal Tank Regiment, General O’Connor arrived on his motorbike at 5.00 pm on 29 June and saw that the 7th Battalion was facing the main enemy counter-attack. Over 700 pieces of Allied artillery were brought into play, and the German advance was checked. 

 

 

Panzergrenadiers on a Panzer IV during training 1943. Image credit: Wikipedia

Fighting in the 'bocage' landscape of mixed woodland and pasture in Normandy with its sunken lanes so frequently hiding the enemy must have been as difficult as in the jungle environment of Burma. 

Similarly, the fanaticism of Japanese soldiers in the Far East  was matched by the ferocity with which extreme Nazis fought and in some cases for the cruelty with which they treated their prisoners of war. Academic studies of the phenomenon in the Far East  campaign have highlighted the notion that a death cult had developed within the Japanese military, coupled with the view of the Emperor as a godhead.

In Normandy, the clearest example of the similarity was seen in the conduct of members of the 12th SS Panzer Division ‘Hitlerjugend’, a German armoured division whose junior enlisted men were drawn from members of the Hitler Youth. A post-war investigation by the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) Court of Inquiry into war crimes committed by the Division determined that it ‘presented a consistent pattern of brutality and ruthlessness’.

During the course of the Normandy Campaign an estimated 156 Canadian prisoners of war are believed to have been executed in cold blood by the 12th SS Panzer Division in the days and weeks following the D-Day landings.

 

A smiling Nazi fanatic: Meyer’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was released in 1954 and died in 1961. 15,000 people attended his funeral

The SS commander Kurt Meyer, who was sentenced to death after the war for his part in some of these crimes, is quoted as stating that he knew of at least three separate cases between 9 June 1944 and 7 July 1944 when one of his men tied explosives to his body and jumped onto an Allied tank to destroy it. 

Canadian historian Michael E. Sullivan sees such conduct as the acts of ‘teenagers who were systematically moulded into fanatical fighters by years of indoctrination by the Nazi leadership’. You can read his 2001 article ‘Combat Motivation and the Roots of Fanaticism: The 12th SS Panzer Division in Normandy’ here

 By 30 June, after German counter-attacks, some of the British forces across the river were withdrawn and the captured ground consolidated, bringing Operation Epsom to a close. The beginning of July saw the Battalion engaged in a counter-attack on the villages of Grainville-sur-Odon and Mondrainville to the west of Caen. The war diary mentions haphazard enemy mortaring, and the role of some of the Battalion’s tanks in screening a mine-laying party at work in the Normandy orchards. 

Two more tanks were lost on 2 July, engaged by enemy fire with small arms, bazookas and artillery, and on that day the diary notes two other ranks wounded and two killed. One of the fatalities was Fred Alexis. 

Fred Alexis is remembered on the Bayeux Memorial in Normandy, pictured here. Image credit: Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Although the Commonwealth War Graves Commission record notes him as a Lance Corporal, Fred Alexis is listed as Trooper Frederick Bedford among 51 of the 7^th Battalion who were killed in action and remembered at the Memorial Service held in the Le Havre area on 25 September 1944. The list is published in Sir Laurence New’s online History of the 4^th and 7^th Battalions.

Fred Bedford is listed as being repatriated to Budleigh Salterton in 1945 after his years of internment by the Japanese. 

I have not yet understood his link to the town. It seems that Minnie and Albert Bedford, whose graves are in St Peter’s Burial Ground, are not related to Fred. 

But I can only imagine the sympathy that people would have felt when they learnt of Fred's experience in the Far East and of the death of his son Fred Alexis. And perhaps that was why Fred Alexis's name appears on Budleigh’s War Memorial, despite the decision taken by the town authorities that the list of names would consist only of those war dead who were actually resident in Budleigh Salterton in September 1939.

Image credit: Trent College

Fred Alexis is  also listed on the Trent College’s WW2 Memorial Wall, which is located in the Chapel.

Fred died in Exmouth on 12 May 1954, aged 64. Galy was living at 4 Lovelace Crescent, in Exmouth when she died ten years later.

The next post is for AIR MECHANIC (L) 2^ND CLASS ALFRED EDWIN CLARKE (1910-44) who died on 9 July 1944, while serving at HMS Ukassa. You can read about him at

https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/03/ww2-75-9-july-1944-death-on-island.html