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2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment
2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment served with 10th Infantry Brigade, 4th Infantry Division. They deployed to France in September 1939 with the British Expeditionary Force and evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940. The next two years saw then engaged in home defence in Britain against the imminently expected German invasion which never arrived. They saw action in the North African Campaign in 1941-42, the Tunisia Campaign in 1942-1943, the Italian Campaign of 1944 and the liberation of Greece in 1944-1945.
7th of September 1939 Location Statement
19th May 1940 Withdrawal
22nd May 1940 Heavy Shelling
23rd May 1940 Withdrawal
28th Jun 1944 In Action
29th Jun 1944 Advance
If you can provide any additional information, especially on actions and locations at specific dates, please add it here.
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Those known to have served with 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment during the Second World War 1939-1945. - Butcher William Percy. Pte. (d.17th July 1944)
- Cox Thomas Walter. Pte.
- Dent Thomas James. Pte.
- Evans Morgan. Sgt. (d.2nd Jul 1940)
- Franklin James. Pte. (d.9th Oct 1940)
- Greening Douglas Paul. L/Cpl.
- Hounslow Stanley Jack. Pte. (d.17th Apr 1943)
- Lee Lionel Arthur. Pte
- Mills Harry William. Cpl.
- Mitchell Samuel. Pte. (d.24th March 1944)
- O'Connor Eugene Patrick. Pte.
- Oakley James Thomas. Pte. (d.2nd July 1940)
- Payne Mervyn John. Pte.
- Peak Alfred Edward. Pte.
- Wimshurst Maurice William. Sgt
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 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment from other sources.
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Want to know more about 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment? There are:1325 items tagged 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire 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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Sgt Maurice William Wimshurst 2nd Btn Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment Sergeant Maurice Wimshurst served with the the 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment in WW2.
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Pte. Eugene Patrick O'Connor 2nd Battalion Bedford & Hertfordshire Regiment Pat joined the 2nd Battalion, Beds and Herts, from the Royal Artillery as Eugene Patrick O'Connell, but was pressured to change his name due to others of the same surname in his battalion. He was, thenceforth, known as Patrick O'Connor and married and had three children with the same surname.
He spent time training in England and saw active service in Italy and Greece. He was asked to go to Palestine as a volunteer service man at the end of the war, but declined. He returned to England and settled down to family life in Sheffield in 1946. He died of natural causes in 1980.
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Pte. Mervyn John Payne 2nd Btn. Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment Private Mervyn Paynewas with the Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Regiment. During the War he rode despatches on a motor cycle (Don R).
He was taken prisoner by the Nazi's and became Prisoner of War number 14588 and placed in Stalag 20B, Marienburg, Poland. Years later he told his nephew that he was brought off his Motor Cycle by a rope strung across the road by the German Army.
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Pte. Samuel Mitchell 2nd Btn. Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment (d.24th March 1944) Samuel Mitchell was my Great-Grandfather. He died the very day my Grandmother was born. He is buried in The Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery. I would love to find out more about him.
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Pte. Stanley Jack Hounslow 2nd Btn. Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Regiment (d.17th Apr 1943) Jack Hounslow was killed in action during the Tunisian Campaign.
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Pte. Thomas Walter Cox 2nd Btn. Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment My father, Thomas Cox who died in 1987 aged 73, was badly wounded during WW2.
The only detail I have is that his battalion was crossing from North Africa to Sicily when he was hit by a sniper's bullet, which passed through one side of his neck and out the other, narrowly missing his spine.He was taken to the Leicester Royal Infirmary and I remember seeing a photo of him sitting up and smiling in hospital, with a plaster cast covering his body from his waist to his chin. Despite carrying the scars, physical and mental, from the war, he worked as an electroplater until well after retirement age.
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Pte. James Thomas Oakley 2nd Btn. Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment (d.2nd July 1940) Private Oakley was the Husband of Nora Oakley, of Buckland Common, Buckinghamshire.
He was 25 when he died and is buried in the S.E. Corner of Carrigeens Cemetery, Lissadill, Co. Sligo, Ireland.
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Sgt. Morgan Evans 2nd Btn. Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment (d.2nd Jul 1940) Morgan Evans was the son of Philip and Elizabeth Evans, husband of Winifred Violet Evans, of Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire.
He was 31 when he died and is buried in the Ardara Church of Ireland Churchyard, Ardara, Co. Donegal, Ireland.
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L/Cpl. Douglas Paul Greening 1st Battalions Bedford and Hertfordshire Regiment  My Dad joined the Beds & Herts as a Boy Soldier in 1932; he was fifteen! After basic training he was sent to India for four years - he told us he was 4'10" tall when he left and 5'8" when he came home. In 1937 he lined the route for the coronation of King George V.
He remained in the UK until the outbreak of war and then mobilised with the BEF and then was evacuated from the beaches in Dunkirk. He lost the thumb on his left hand during the evacuation - dived into a ditch while he was being shelled and it was taken of by a piece of shrapnel - and left the army. He went to work at the local RAF station in Leighton Buzzard where he met Ruth who was to become my mum; I was born in Nov 1944 and have a younger brother, Pat and sister, Cath. When I went to school some of the other kids used to tell me 'You do your shoe-laces up funny!"; it wasn't until later years that I realised I had been taught by a man with only one thumb!
We loved my dad's stories of India. He played hokey, ran cross-country and boxed for the regiment. He told us one day that he came face to face with a leopard when he was out running and the leopard just padded off back into the bush. The 'boys' who were 'put on a charge' used to be given the strap; he told us on one of his first nights in the barracks one of the boys was being punished and crying 'me mother I want me mother' to which the 'enforcer' replied "It's no used crying for your mother she's four thousand miles away" and there was my fifteen year-old dad sobbing into his pillow. My dad was already in the boxing team when he was first 'put on a charge'. Lofty Shotbolt (I think that was his name) was the heavyweight champion and found out about this; he told the 'enforcer' "Touch Boy Greening and you are in trouble". When my dad went for his punishment in the room at the end of the barrack he was told to scram while the enforcer hit the table with his strap "I never shouted so loud" my dad told us.
My dad died of a sudden heart attack and died in 1994 aged 77. Until then he was as fit as a 'butcher's dog' and we thought he'd live to 100, but we'll never know how the war affected the boys. He was in the RAOB as an older man and with a photo of him in India, my dad is on the left; on the back is a note 'some of the boys' - still makes me cry.
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Cpl. Harry William Mills 2nd Btn. Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment My Dad, Harry Mills signed up in September 1932 and went off to India - I think with the 1st Battalion of the Beds and Herts - they then went on to Palestine. At the outbreak of WW2 Dad, I believe, transferred to the 2nd Battalion and went off to France and Belgium. He was then part of the BEF that were evacuated at Dunkirk. He then went off to North Africa and Egypt. From there to Italy, Sicily and Greece. If anyone has any further information as to what the 1st Battalion did between 1932 and the outbreak of the Second World War, and the 2nd Battalion from 1939 to November 1945 I would be extremely grateful.
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