The Wartime Memories Project

- 7th Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment (Queens Own) during the Second World War -


Allied Forces Index
skip to content


This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.


If you enjoy this site

please consider making a donation.




    Site Home

    WW2 Home

    Add Stories

    WW2 Search

    Library

    Help & FAQs


 WW2 Features

    Airfields

    Allied Army

    Allied Air Forces

    Allied Navy

    Axis Forces

    Home Front

    Battles

    Prisoners of War

    Allied Ships

    Women at War

    Those Who Served

    Day-by-Day

    Library

    The Great War

 Submissions

    Add Stories

    Time Capsule

    TWMP on Facebook



    Childrens Bookshop

 FAQ's

    Help & FAQs

    Glossary

    Volunteering

    Contact us

    News

    Bookshop

    About


Advertisements











World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

7th Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment (Queens Own)



22nd May 1940 Defensive Positions

23rd May 1940 In Action

24th May 1940 In Defence

24th May 1940 Last Stand

25th May 1940 Last Stand

31st Jan 1943 Advance

1st October 1944 Moves

16th October 1944 Liasion


If you can provide any additional information, especially on actions and locations at specific dates, please add it here.



Those known to have served with

7th Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment (Queens Own)

during the Second World War 1939-1945.

  • Banks Harold. (d.11th September 1944)
  • Day Frank Leslie. Pte.
  • Harrison Owen Horace. Cpl. (d.19th Jan 1945)
  • Newman Ronald Harold. (d.10th Feb 1944)
  • Penman David Irons. Tpr. (d.5th Oct 1944)
  • Stevens Reginald. Pte.
  • Stickley Leonard John. Pte
  • Stringer Fredrick William. 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 7th Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment (Queens Own) from other sources.



The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.

Announcements



  • The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 24 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web.
  • 28th March 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 263784 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible.
  • Looking for help with Family History Research?   Please read our Family History FAQ's
  • The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors. If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web.
    If you enjoy this site

    please consider making a donation.


Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text.



We are now on Facebook. Like this page to receive our updates.

If you have a general question please post it on our Facebook page.


Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home.

If you have any unwanted photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them. The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted. World War 1 One ww1 wwII second 1939 1945 battalion
Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.



Want to know more about 7th Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment (Queens Own)?


There are:1325 items tagged 7th Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment (Queens Own) 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.


Pte. Fredrick William Stringer 7th Btn. Royal West Kent Regiment

Frederick Stringer completed the General Questionnaire for British/American Ex-Prisoners of War document in 1945. The information he provided is.
  • Enlistment date - 20 October 1939.
  • Captured in Albert, France 20 May 1940.
  • Imprisoned in camp XX1D Posen from June 1940 to August 1944.
  • Working camps, Posen Mum 1940 to Aug 1944 working on railways, then (nameplate not legible) from Aug 1944 to Jan 1945 working in a coalmine.
I'm not sure, but I think he must have then gone on the forced death march. He never spoke about any of this to us children.

Margaret Lane



Harold Banks 44th Btn. Reconnaissance Corps (d.11th September 1944)

His grave at Coriano Ridge Cemetery

Harold Banks was my great granddad. He died when he was 38 during the 2nd World War, he served with 7th Btn. Royal West Kent Regiment and the Reconnaissance Corps. His wife, my great gran, told us about him. She had a little card he had made from a bit of leather with a feather stuck in it. She passed away in 1989.

I did a search and found that Harold is buried in Italy in Coriani Ridge Cemetery. I don't know if my great gran ever got over there. They had two daughters Joyce and Greta. Grandma Joyce has passed away but Greta is still with us.




Pte. Reginald Stevens 7th Btn. D Coy. Royal West Kent Regiment

My father Reginald Stevens (known as Reg) was born in Barking, Essex on 23rd March 1919. He was called up during the latter part of 1939 and reported to the Verne Citadel Barracks, Portland, Dorset on 1st December 1939. A good friend of his there, and later as a prisoner, was Reg Hamilton who came from Surbiton, Surrey.

Early in April 1940 he was transferred to Blandford Barracks, Dorset and assigned to the Queen's Own Royal West Kents, 7th Battalion. Later that month they moved to Gravesend and then to Southampton where, on 21st April, they embarked on the ship S.S. Bruges bound for Le Havre. Then by train to Elbeuf near Rouen where they spent about 3 weeks there. At this time there is mention of them being in Le Manoir near Alizay and Bailleul.

On 19th of May 1940 they were encamped in a small village about 4 miles from the town of Albert. A German attack took them completely by surprise and they dispersed into small groups. He was captured about 5 miles from Amiens on Tuesday 21st May and taken to Amiens civilian prison where he spent 2 or 3 nights. He was then set to work in a Red Cross Hospital cleaning and digging graves. There was an RAF air raid during this time and he assisted moving wounded soldiers to the cellars (a very harrowing job).

Not long after this they had to march to the Belgian frontier and finally boarded a train for Trier. On the 9th of June 1940 he entered Stalag XXA at Thorn (Torun) and was there until 1st of March 1941 when he was moved to Stalag XXB at Marienburg in Poland.

Five long years of manual labouring on farms and roads finally came to an end when he was liberated by American forces on Friday 13th April 1945 close to the town of Stendal in Germany. Towards the end of April he moved to New Brandenburg airport and after a week was flown home to Wing in Bedfordshire. He moved to barracks for rehabilitation including new clothes, 3 months double ration cards and travel passes. Finally in May 1945 he arrived back home in Barking and met his parents and sister after an absence of 5 years and 5 months.

At the end of July 1945 he reported to Colchester Barracks for ex-POW rehabilitation and weapons training with a view to being sent to the Far East where the Japanese were still fighting. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the conflict therefore his Far East adventure never took place.

He left the Army later in 1945 and returned to his old job in Holborn, London. After a long and mainly very happy life my father died in December 2000 aged 81.

Peter Reginald Stevens.



Ronald Harold Newman 44th (7th Queen's Own Royal West Kent) Recce Regt. (d.10th Feb 1944)

Ronald Newman was my Uncle who gave his life and is resting in the Minturno Military Cemetery, Italy. We visited his grave a couple of years ago and it was a very humbling place.

Dan Newman



Tpr. David Irons Penman 7th Btn. Royal West Kent Regiment (d.5th Oct 1944)

David Penman was my grandmother's sisters first child. He gave his life at the age of 23 and is buried in Cesena cemetery in Italy.

Tom McIntosh









Recomended Reading.

Available at discounted prices.







Links


















    The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items.

    The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.

    If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.



    Hosted by:

    The Wartime Memories Project Website

    is archived for preservation by the British Library





    Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
    - All Rights Reserved

    We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.