210642 Pte. Henry Lenton British Army Royal Artillery from:Walsall, Staffs My late father Henry Lenton was the youngest child of William and Helen Lenton nee Gunn of Walsall they had been publicans in Walsall Foreign Staffordshire. He was child of the St Marys the Mount RC school and served on the altar as a young boy. My father joined the artillery south staffs regiment in 1936 at the age of 17 yrs. He did most of the campaigns during WW2; Dunkirk, Tunisia, El Alemein, Africa and the Holy Land, he was in the airborne parachute regiment in 1944 on Operation Market Garden [Pegusus] earning his wings at Ramat David Palestine K57,a red beret.
He was sent to Arnhem with the airborne to capture the Bridge and was taken POW on 25th Sept 1944 at Oosterbeek whether this was in bombed shelled HQ of the day or on the river of 54 men left in the late evening during to heavy German firing on the river is unclear. He was in the 11th Battalion.
My father was then taken by cattle train truck,the marched into Limburg where he was to be prisoner of War in Stalag 12A from Sept 25th until liberation the following year. His mother passed away in February 1945, therefore he was never to see her beloved face again. My father didn't talk much about the war, but like most young men, tried to begin life again, sadly his wife was diagnosed in 1950 with MS and life was going to be tough for them and their 8 children, today Henry's legacy of loyalty lives on through his children who live across the world, in Australia, UK and Scotland and his memory will never leave us, such brave young men.
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