Budleigh Past and Present

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 ...

Continued from  13 Sept 1945 - An Argentine connection LIEUTENANT EVAN MACDONALD MACRAE (1915-45)   217054, Royal Artillery 136 Field Regt   https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2024/01/ww2-75-13-september-1945-argentine.html     The headstone for the grave of Hubert John Bale in St Peter’s Burial Ground, Budleigh Salterton Section G, Row 11, Grave 4. Hubert John Bale’s name does not appear on Budleigh Salterton’s War Memorial even though his grave is in the town’s Burial Ground, and is listed on the website of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). I have not been able to find out what his Budleigh family connections were, if any. I am also puzzled that he is listed as a Major in at least one WW2 record. But it was that record, on the website of the Far East Prisoners of War that led me to the grim story of Hubert John’s wartime captivity which surely contributed to his death in 1947, aged 49. His service number was 86125.   ...