A young farm Labourer from Shropshire.  His war records unfortunately were destroyed in the 2nd world war. I’ve had to dig deep to peice his story together.  We think he may have joined a PALS battalion and was enlisted in  Baschurch.  He was a Baschurch boy but was labouring at a farm in Weston Lullingfields at the time.  It seems that he would have travelled up through Egypt towards Gaza and Jerusalem.  After fierce fighting he was killed “by a Turkish sniper” according to my grandmother who remembered being told that he died instantly.  He was one of 22 killed on that day and later re-buried when the final battle of Jerusalem was won a few days later.

My grandmother could remember the last day she saw him when she waved him off from Baschurch Station.  She was 14 years old so it would have been in early 2017 when she saw him off.  I know she loved him dearly (and passed that love on to me to continue).  She was a lifelong supporter of the Royal British Legion and felt sorely the distance between them and that she had no grave to visit.  I feel very proud of this young country boy who gave everything he had for his country and family.  I have 2 sons aged 22 and 25 and can’t imagine the pain and trauma all of the families (on whatever side) went through in losing their loved ones in such a traumatic way.  I’m proud to say “gone but NEVER forgotten.”

Elayne Higgins