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Those known to have served with 1st Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment during the Second World War 1939-1945. - Brown James Alan. Sgt. (d.23rd June 1944)
- Byrne John Christopher.
- Carter Jack. Cpl.
- Curnow Ford Beverley. Pte. (d.31st May 1940)
- Dean Ernest. (d.14th June 1944)
- Duffy Thomas. Pte. (d.21st July 1944)
- Jones GW. Pte.
- McLean William. W/Cpl
- Petfield Malcolm. RQMS.
- Thomas Desmond. Sgt.
- Vickers George. Pte. (d.12th Oct 1944)
- Watson RWA.
- Welsh John. Pte. (d.29th June 1944)
- Westwood Albert. Pte.
The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
please
Add a Name to this List
Records of 1st Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment from other sources.
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Want to know more about 1st Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment? There are:1618 items tagged 1st Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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RWA Watson 1st Btn. South Lancashire Regiment RWA Watson served with the 1st Btn. South Lancashire Regiment British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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Pte. GW Jones 1st Btn. South Lancashire Regiment Pte.GW Jones served with the 1st Btn. South Lancashire Regiment British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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Ernest Dean 1st Btn South Lancashire Regiment (d.14th June 1944) Unfortunately, I haven't found out much at all about my Uncle Ernest Dean.
I know that he served with the 1st Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment in WW2 and that he died 14th of June 1944.
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Sgt. Desmond Thomas 1st Batallion South Lancashire Regiment My Grandad, Des Thomas, joined at the age of 15 having lied about his age. He served with the 1st Battalion South Lancashire Regiment and before he died at age 92 he spoke about losing his best friend in a battle - possibly Arnhem? He also described the D Day landings.
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Pte. Ford Beverley Curnow 1st Battalion South Lancashire Regiment (d.31st May 1940)  My father Ford Curnow was born 12 July 1908 and was persuaded by his mother to join the Army Reserve in the South Lancashire Regiment to "keep an eye on Wilfred", his older brother who had already joined. There is a photograph of him with the 1st Battalion, South Lancashire Regimental Band in Sonnenberg Camp, Germany dated 1929. He married my mother Evelyn Jones on 14th October 1937 and was called up for permanent service to The Prince of Wales Volunteers on 1st September 1939. He was reported Missing in Action on 31st of May 1940, subsequently reported killed in action at Dunkirk on the same date.
Family hearsay is that his brother Wilfred passed Ford who was in a foxhole with a machine gun, and told him they were falling back. Ford's response was "it's a piece of cake". Wilfred was advised that his brother was in trouble and returned to find Ford blown to pieces. Shortly afterwards, Wilfred was invalided out of the army.
Montefiore's admirable book about Dunkirk says that some units of the British army were ordered to fight to the last man to keep the corridor open to allow the British Army to retreat to the beaches - an incredible example of self-sacrifice. It would interesting to know if Ford and Wilfred were in one of those units.
Ford left 2 daughters, and now 5 grandchildren, 6 great grandchildren and 2 great, great grandchildren and counting. I would love to let them know the full story of Ford's heroism.
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Pte. John Welsh 1st Btn. South Lancashire Regiment (d.29th June 1944) My great uncle John Welsh was in the 1st Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment. He served during the D-day invasion and was just 22 years old. His birthday was on D-day and he survived until the 29th of June 1944 when he died from wounds. He is buried at Hermanville War Cemetery, France. I have no photos of him and no first grave marker. If anyone has any information on this soldier or a photo of him, it would be gratefully appreciated.
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John Christopher Byrne 1st Btn. South Lancashire Regiment John Byrne served with the 1st South Lancashire Regiment and 56th Recce Regiment.
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Cpl. Jack Carter 1st Btn. South Lancashire Regiment My father in law Jack Carter was in the Assault Troops in the first wave and landed on Queen White near Caen, at 07.30 approx. on D-Day 6th June 1944.
He was in charge of a mortar squad, he survived any injury up until the time a German mortar bomb landed near them and he sustained severe shrapnel damage to his back. He can remember watching the the RAF 'blanket-bombing' Caen, so it must have been after this.
After recovering from his injuries he was sent to Malta. This was with the 2nd Battalion South Lancs, as that was the unit he was with when 'demobbed' in 1946
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Pte. George Vickers 1st Btn. South Lancashire Regiment (d.12th Oct 1944) George Vickers was the son of Alfred and Elizabeth Vickers of Primrose Jarrow.
He served with the South Lancashire Regiment 1st Battalion, and died aged 23 in October 1944.
He is buried in the Overloon War Cemetery, in Holland and is also commemorated on the WW2 Roll of Honour Plaque in the entrance of Jarrow Town Hall.
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RQMS. Malcolm "Lofty" Petfield 1st Btn. South Lancashire Regiment  Malcolm Petfield "Lofty" as he was best remembered joined the ATC 1942 at 17 yr old , he trained and flew the Sopwith Camel. In his time with the unit he won the Heavyweight Boxing Championships. He left the ATC due to eye problems and joined the Navy and trained at HMS Arthur (land based training "ship").
When the call came for troops for D Day he went to the local recruiting office which was set up in a village hall in Ripon .
A Yorkshire man in the South Lancs Regiment, I asked him how he became to be in a Lancashire Rgt , he told me "there was a large picture frame on the wall and I liked the badge"!!.
He did a few weeks basic training in Scotland and then onto D Day .He landed at 7.25am on the 6th June . His words : "We landed and I was that frightened I just kept running forward , where too didn't matter I just followed the lads in front" ,As it was he and some others went to the right and ended up getting split up from the rest of the Btn, the Btn made it to Hermanville by 9am ,my father and the others made it back to the Btn mid afternoon.
On the 8th June they were sent down to reinforce Pegasus bridge, spent time around the villages of Plumetot, Mathiau, Cresserons, Giselle woods skirmishing constantly with the Germans. They ended to the east of Caen at 2 chateaus named Chateau la Londe and Le La Londel, they took the first without much of a problem.
The other unfortunately caused them to have massive casualties, they were brought back to Hermanville for R&R, regrouped with the East Yorkshire and returned back to the Chateau only again to suffer more heavy casualties .
After the fall of Caen he returned to England 24hrs R&R and rejoined the Btn. He went up into Holland, Venray and then onto Germany where he was part of the occupation force. During his time in Berlin he guarded Rudolph Hess and Albert Speer, during this time he went on a troop ship to Tripoli to bring back war criminals for trial at Nuremberg.
When the 1st Btn amalgamated with the 2nd Btn he ended up in Trieste as part as BETFOR , during his time at Lazarette he met a young lady in Muggia called Elvera Massari who he married and was happily married too for 54yrs up until he passed away.
My father stayed on as a Regular up until the 60's, during his time he was the undefeated Heavy Weight Boxing Champion of the British armed forces Played Rugby which we still have many trophy's and medals for his sporting activities, he served in major conflicts preceding WWII and was at one point attached to the Parachute Regt. He never spoke in detail about his time during WWII , I alway's remember him saying to me "If any man say's he wasn't frightened , he's a liar. There are not words that would even start to describe what it was really like, apart from we were frightened to death"
When I took him back to his first Normandy Anniversary (it was 45yrs later), I asked him where abouts he actually was in the battle area, he could never point to a specific area , but would say "we were some where around here, you didn't take much notice of where you were, you were concentrating on staying alive and doing what you'd been sent to do"
When I took him down to Sword Beach at 7.25 on the 6th June (the time he landed), he walked away from me, and for the first time in my life I saw my father actually shed tears, this was a shock for me, because he was not normally the emotional type, or he kept it very well hidden.
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