WW2 100 - 25 September 1942 - A tragic accident at Dalditch Camp: Lieutenant James Ayers Bayley, Royal Marines 1918-42
Continued from 19 August 1942 ‘Never forgotten. He was one of the best.’ PRIVATE ERNEST FRANK HARDING (1919-42) https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/11/ww2-7513-never-forgotten-he-was-one-of.html Lieutenant James Ayers Bayley’s is one of the 13 WW2 military graves in St Peter’s Burial Ground registered on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. He died on 25 September 1942. ‘Killed on Active Service’ and the fact that he is buried in Budleigh Salterton, along with the fact that his uncle was a respected local resident and that James' widow Elizabeth apparently came from Exmouth might suggest that his name should be on Budleigh’s War Memorial, but it is not. And ‘Killed on Active Service’ gives no clue that this 24-year-old officer was actually shot and killed by a Bren gun while on a training exercise. James was born on 6 September 1918, the son of Captain L.H. Bayley RN and Isa R.N. Bayley according to ...