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Showing posts from December, 2023

WW2 75 – April 1941 – Uses of the Census: Private Francis Ernest Newcombe (1910-41), 8th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment

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  Continued from  SECOND LIEUTENANT JOHN FRANCIS BURKINSHAW MARTIN (1921-41), 7 Jan 1941: ‘Their only son’. 51 st (The Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry) Field Regt. https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/12/ww2-75-7-january-1941-their-only-son.html       The name F.E. Newcombe on Budleigh Salterton’s War Memorial The project of writing profiles of all the WW2 casualties associated with Budleigh Salterton, as recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, is drawing to a close. Throughout research for the project it has been frustrating to find so little information about some of the individuals concerned. Sometimes it has been puzzling to discover that a person’s name has been omitted from the list on Budleigh’s War Memorial. Even more puzzling is when a name on the War Memorial is not listed on the website of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), as is the case of Francis Ernest Newcombe. A total of 34 Newcombes who died in WW2 are recorded by t

WW2 75 – 14 April 1945 - The PoW killed by ‘friendly fire’: Lieutenant Humphrey Richard Hickson Marriott (1919-45), The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment)

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Continued from  CAPTAIN GERALD ARTHUR RICHARDS (1909-45)   23 January 1945. : 'A Tragic Accident in Burma' Royal Army Medical Corps  https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/05/ww2-75-23-january-1945-tragic-accident.html   The grave of Lieutenant Humphrey Richard Hickson Marriott   in Durnbach War Cemetery, Miesbach, Bavaria. Image credit: www.findagrave.com   The headstone's personal inscription is  ‘In proud and everlasting memory of our beloved only son and brother.’    Humphrey’s name does not appear on Budleigh Salterton’s War Memorial, and his link to the town, as mentioned in Commonwealth War Grave Commission records, may be tenuous. But his tragic story deserves to be told. Spending most of WW2 as a prisoner and then losing his life a few days before VE Day thanks to ‘friendly fire’ must have been a harsh blow for his family. His parents were Major Richard George Armine Marriott DSO and Eileen Anita Marriott, n é e Hickson, who had married in 1912.