43rd Wessex Division

Lt-Col. G. Taylor

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant-Colonel George Taylor
5th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry

[I] experienced a deep feeling of gratitude to my officers and men. I looked upon them as my sons. They had never failed me, and thank God, they can go back in due course to their families.

(Quoted in Daily Telegraph, 25 Jul 1994, 21)

Born on 17 September 1905 in Blundellsands, Lancashire, George Taylor formerly worked on the Liverpool Cotton Exchange and belonged to the Territorial Army officer before taking a regular commission with the West Yorkshire Regiment in 1929. He participated in the failed Norway campaign of 1940 and afterward served as a staff officer in Madagascar and India, which he regarded as “wasting the war.”

Continue reading →

Lt-Col. F.G.W. Lane Fox

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant-Colonel F.G.W. Lane Fox
43rd (Wessex) Reconnaissance Regiment

They were quiet and for the most part cultured young men, very different in their outlook from the robust horsy officers of their fellow regiment, the Life Guards. Except, possibly, for the second Colonel, Joe Lane-Fox, whose only advice to me on joining the regiment was “Don’t mix port and champagne and don’t have your wife in the morning, In case you meet somebody more interesting in the afternoon.”
(Somerset De Chair, Morning Glory, 136)

Born on 14 October 1899 in London, Francis Gordon Ward Lane Fox was a graduate of Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was commissioned in Royal Horse Guards in 1919. Born with the last name Jackson, in 1937 he adopted Lane Fox by deed poll. In 1929, he had married the daughter and heiress of George Lane-Fox, 1st Baron Bingley and niece to Lord Halifax. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1937.

Continue reading →

Lt-Col. R.W. James

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant-Colonel Richard James
5th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry

No fewer than twelve counter-attacks had been delivered and repulsed, and it was becoming apparent that the final exhaustion of the battalion in the face of such odds could only be a question of time when Lieutenant-Colonel James, who had been such an inspiration in the whole conduct of the defence, was shot out of a tree from which he had been directing fire by a machine-gun burst and killed instantly. So perished a very able and gallant officer.

(Ernest Gordon Godfrey, The History of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, 1939-45, 234)

Born in 1915 in Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Richard Whitfield James was a cricketer, rugby player, solicitor, and Terriorial Army officer. He was commissioned with the Somerset Light Infantry and mobilized with the 4th Battalion at the start of the Second World War. In January 1944, he became second-in-command of the 5th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry in the 43rd Division.

Continue reading →

Lt-Col. M. Crawford

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant-Colonel M. Crawford
8th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment (MG)

As we got over London bridge and into the city more people about and when we got to the East End, such places as East Ham, East Sheen etc there was the most wonderful demonstration by the people of London, all the poor people rushing out giving us tea, buns, potato chips, cigarettes and soap … It was very touching and made me feel that the spirit of the Country is very good at heart and that one should not believe what the Daily Mirror writes.

(Quoted in Ben Kite, Stout Hearts: the British and Canadians in Normandy 1944, 321)

Born on 9 July 1901 in Cork, Ireland, Mervyn Crawford was commissioned into the Middlesex Regiment in 1921. He was posted to the Far East, serving in Shanghai in the late 1920s and in Hong Kong in the late 1930s. By 1938, he had been promoted to major and took command of the 1/8th Middlesex Regiment in May 1942. The next year, it was redesignated the 8th Battalion, the machine gun unit attached to the 43rd Wessex Division.

Continue reading →

Lt-Col. J.W. Atherton

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant-Colonel Jack Atherton
5th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry

It was a tragedy that one of the first casualties that the battalion was to suffer was their commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Atherton, a Territorial soldier of the highest quality. As already related, he was killed while acting as loader to an anti-tank gun with point-blank range of one of the German tanks. During his six months in command he had impressed his personality most vividly on the battalion and his loss was hard to bear.

(Ernest Gordon Godfrey, The History of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, 1939-45, 225)

Born on 7 July 1906 in Kingston, Cambridgeshire, John Winn Atherton was a lawyer, solicitor, and Territorial Army officer, having been commissioned with the Dorsetshire Regiment since 1926. He mobilized for active service and within four years had risen to acting lieutenant-colonel and commandant of a division battle school. By January 1944, he had been appointed to command the 5th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry in the 43rd Wessex Division.

Continue reading →

Lt-Col. C. Brooke-Smith

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant-Colonel C. Brooke-Smith
7th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry

At Bn “O” Gp O.C. Y Coy Major Brooke-Smith put forward a useful suggestion which some of his men had adopted. Two Sten mags were firmly bound together with adhesive tape, one was inserted in the gun, and when empty, the man merely turned the double mag round and inserted the other half. This got rid of the dangerous delay of fumbling in pouches. Both mags would bot fit in a basic pouch.

(2nd KSLI War Diary, 10 Oct 1944)

Born on 10 August 1915 in Larne, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, Cuthbert Brooke-Smith was commissioned into the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry after graduating from RMC, Sandhurst in 1936. With the 2nd Battalion, KSLI on garrison duty in Jamacia, he was stationed with a company in Bermuda at the start of the Second World War. He returned to England with his new wife in early 1942. He was assigned to the Reconnaissance Corps but would rejoin the 2nd KSLI in April 1944.

Continue reading →

Maj. EJ. Bruford & Lt-Col. J.W. Nicol

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Major E.J. Bruford
&
Lieutenant-Colonel J.W. Nicol
7th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry

On arrival of his battalion on the start line, he found that about 50 of the enemy with three machine guns were still in the area. He quickly took charge of the situation and having eliminated this opposition, proceeded with his task … Throughout the operation he showed outstanding personal courage and capacity to command in the face of heavy resistance.

(Nicol, D.S.O. citation, 21 Dec 1944)

Within weeks of landing in France in late June 1944, the 7th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry of the 43rd Division suffered heavy casualties would lose a series of commanding officers. Lieutenant-Colonel R.G.P. Besley was wounded and evacuated on 3 July, Lieutenant-Colonel G.C.P. Lance was killed on 10 July. The third CO, Edward Jeffries Bruford was born on 4 July 1900 in Cheddar, Somerset. He was a football player and civil servant with the Ministry of Agriculture. A Territorial Army officer, he was commissioned into the 5th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry in 1925. Just three days after replacing Lance, Bruford was killed alongside the CO of the 7th Hampshires, Major J.R.C. Mallock.

Continue reading →

Lt-Col. G.C.P. Lance

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant-Colonel G.C.P. Lance
6th Battalion, Green Howards
7th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry

He was always to be found where the battle was hottest, encouraging his men and often leading the final assault on enemy MG posts. I have heard from several sources of the magnificent example and leadership displayed by Lt Col Lance.

(Somerset County Herald and Taunton Courier, 15 Jul 1944, 4)

Born on 9 May 1913 in Strood, Kent, Geoffrey Charles Philip Lance was commissioned into the Somerset Light Infantry in 1933. During the El Alamein campaign, on 13 October 1942, Lance succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel E.W. Eden in command of the 6th Battalion, Green Howards. For “superb leadership and “conspicuous devotion to duty,” he earned the Distinguished Service Order.

Continue reading →

Lt-Col. R.G.P. Besley

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant-Colonel R.G.P. Besley
7th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry

In a letter home he stated he had had a piece of metal through the thigh but that an operation had been performed and the surgeon had told him he thought in course of time the use of the leg would be fully restored.

(Somerset County Herald and Taunton Courier, 15 Jul 1944, 4)

Born on 2 March 1906 in Worcester, Worcestershire, Reginald George Payne Besley was a rugby footballer and director of a textile firm in Taunton, Somerset. A Territorial Army major in the 5th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry, Besley enlisted for active service in September 1939. He became second-in-command for the 7th Battalion, which he assumed command of in January 1943.

Continue reading →

Lt-Col. W.A. Venour

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant-Colonel W.A. Venour
5th Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment

For the remainder of the day the battalion was subjected to heavy mortar and shell fire, but the battalion commander frequently visited his forward companies and by his personal example kept up a very fine fighting spirit with his battalion, who had been in close contact with the enemy for three days.

(D.S.O. citation, 22 Mar 1945)

Born on 11 August 1905 on the North West Frontier in British India, Walter Anderson Venour was the son of Lieutenant Colonel Walter Edward Venour of Lieutenant Colonel Walter Edward Venour (1864—1914) of the Indian Army. He was killed on the Western Front on 2 November 1914 in command of the 58th Vaughan’s Rifles (Frontier Force). Following his father’s career path, the younger Venour was commissioned into the Manchester Regiment in 1925.

Continue reading →