WW2 100 – 8 August 1943 – ‘Thundering through the clear air’: Sergeant Charles Philip Southcott (1914-43) Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 61 Squadron
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 ...