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List of those who served with The Border Regiment during The Second World WarSelect a story link or scroll down to browse those stories hosted on this site.
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William Hewer Border Regiment My Grandad was William Hewer, and he was in the Border Regiment. He joined the regiment in 1937 and was one of the first soldiers to be sent abroad when the second world war broke out. He was sent to France to set up ammunition dumps and by 1940 he was serving on the front line in France. He was taken prisoner and was marched through Holland and Belgium to the Stalag camp. He was moved from one Polish Prison camp to another for almost five years. I do know that he learnt how to cut hair while he was a POW and used to regularly cut the other POW hair (I also heard that he used to cut the guards hair too - but I don't know how much truth there is in that). My Grandad, as many, had a difficult time during those years and seldom spoke to his family about that time. Because of this, the information that I have is limited. On his death, I was given his Dog Tag, which states "Stalag XXI B No. 7328. |
William Hewer Border Regiment My Grandad was William Hewer, and he was in the Border Regiment. He joined the regiment in 1937 and was one of the first soldiers to be sent abroad when the second world war broke out. He was sent to France to set up ammunition dumps and by 1940 he was serving on the front line in France. He was taken prisoner and was marched through Holland and Belgium to the Stalag camp. He was moved from one Polish Prison camp to another for almost five years. I do know that he learnt how to cut hair while he was a POW and used to regularly cut the other POW hair (I also heard that he used to cut the guards hair too - but I don't know how much truth there is in that). My Grandad, as many, had a difficult time during those years and seldom spoke to his family about that time. Because of this, the information that I have is limited. On his death, I was given his Dog Tag, which states "Stalag XXI B No. 7328. |
Frank Heyes Border Regiment  My uncle, Frank Heyes, The Border Regiment, was taken prisoner between 6/10 June 1940 at Fecamp. I have the letters and cards he sent home during his internment and his POW ID tag. He started captivity in Stalag XX1 B and sent a card dated 14 July 1941 from Stalag VIII B. The last card I have is dated 28 June 1944 and he arrived back in the UK 16 May 1945.
This Christmas Postcard was drawn by my father Kenneth (Ken) V F Wood in a competition. The J.H. on the base drum is for Major Jimmy Howe who later became the Musical Director of the Scots Guards. My Father died in 1980 but I have several photographs including the cobblers shop where my father was part of a small team under Arthur Weston making artificial legs. Tony Wood |
A/LCpl. John "Jack" Thwaite 2nd Btn. Border Regiment My Dad Jack Thwaite joined the TA in March 1933 serving with 7th Bn Duke of Wellington's Regt hence his Regtl number. He joined the Regular Army in Nov 1934 at the age of 20. Initially he served with 1st Border in Belfast then with 2nd Border in India from 1935 to 1943, including service on the NW Frontier with another Btn as a reinforcement. He returned to the UK in 1943 & was posted to 6th Border. He landed on D Day 6 Jun 1944 with this Beach Group Bn. He transferred on breakup of the Battalion to the Lancashire Fusiliers, East Lancs and finally 7th RWF. He was wounded in action on the 18th of September 1944. |
L/Cpl. John Hudson 4th Btn. Border Regiment
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Capt. Horace Wallace Ashton MC. Durham Light Infantry My father, Horace Ashton married Catherine Watt Gilstin of Sunderland, Co. Durham (now Wearmouth) at High Lane. He volunteered for the Army in 1939 and rose to the rank of Captain. He was a proud and private man and although he talked about the Army as he grew older, we the family never really knew why he was awarded the MC. besides several other medals. He had three children and became an Overall Manufacturer mainly for the Ministry of Defence. He was a founder member of High Lane British Legion and died in the late 1990's. I am now 72 and am anxious to find what he was awarded the M.C for, I have a copy of a letter King George sent him from Buckingham Palace but nothing more. |
Pte. Harry "Dusty" Rhodes 1st Btn Border Regiment My father Harry Rhodes joined the Border Regiment at Carlisle in 1941. His actual d.o.b. was 11/3/1925, but army records have it as 11/3/1923, so he would have been 16 when he joined up. He was sent to North Africa and took part in the longest towed glider flight from, I think, Casablanca to Tunis. In 1943 he was stationed at or near, -- where his glider was released early and crashed in the sea. Several of his platoon were drowned. The remainder of the Battalion served in southern Italy around Taranto and guarded prisoners there. On the way back to England their troopship collided with an American Cruiser and was badly damaged. They docked at Malta for a time. When they returned to the U.K. they were based in Staffordshire training and for a time at Drem airfield in Scotland. They left for Arnhem from Aldermaston. I think and his company held positions near a farm on the northwest side of the Oosterbeek perimeter. His company commander was Charles Breeze who was wounded, but escaped capture. I have a letter from Lt. Col. Breeze to my Grandmother dated Nov 1944 when he had recovered from his wounds. It states that my father was unhurt on the afternoon of the 25th Sept, but he was wounded, as many were, by mortar fragments whist in a slit trench on the forward perimeter. He was kept in the cellar of the farm until the Germans arrived. He was taken to the local hospital and was operated on by a Waffen SS doctor who was a dental specialist before the war. My father thought he was the brother of Rudolf Hess, the infamous concentration camp commander. When they were fit enough to travel they went to Germany by train and were shot up by allied aircraft on the way and made to clear bomb rubble off the tracks in one city they passed through. I think he was held in Stalag Luft 1X for a while but then moved further east. They worked unloading sugar beet barges and later in a mine where they were liberated by the Russians in May 1945. No one tried to escape as they were so far east, but they did go through the wire to collect vegetables from the nearby fields to supplement their rations. They had all lost so much weight that the authorities sent them to a camp in Denmark I think called Lildelhalle to be fattened up before they could be repatriated. My father said his glider weight was 12st 2lbs at Arnhem and was down to 8st 4lbs when they arrived in Denmark. They were flown into Finningley Yorks in Sept 1945 to be met by customs officers checking what they were bringing back in case duty was due. The whole group smashed their bottles of schnapps and brandy on the hangar wall rather than pay. Some welcome home! He finished his army career guarding No 3 civilian internment camp near York and was discharged in October 1946. He returned to Oldham and eventually joined the Police force in which he served until 1981. He died in January 1988 aged 63. He never returned to Arnhem, but did visit Sicily for a holiday in the 70's. I went to the 60th anniversary celebration at Arnhem in 2004 and was overwhelmed by the Dutch people's kindness and interest in my father's story. We visited the woods and the farm which we think was the company position and also the cemetery and the John Frost bridge in Arnhem. I still have the letter and my father's Borderers' cap badge which are my prize posssesions. David Rhodes |
Sgt. Philip William Joseph Beckett Border Regiment My Dad, Philip Beckett, having been recalled to the colours was with the BEF in Belguim where he was wounded in the lower back by German Machine gun fire. He was then carried on a stretcher all the way to Dunkirk, where he was taken into the care of a French medical unit. He was eventually removed back home via the famous mole, being literally thrown onto a Navy vessel which lay to for barely a minute. He spent over three months in an Edinburgh Hospital before returning to his units HQ at Carlisle Castle; there he met my Mother Sally Gallefor who was working in the Irish Gate Tavern. |
Sgt. Thomas Watson B Company 14 Platoon Border Regiment (d.21st Sept 1944) My dad was Sgt Thomas Watson from Blyth, Northumbland. He served with the 1st Airbourne Divison in the Border Regiment. He was killed in action near Driel Ferry and was buried there on the 21/9/44. He was later reburied in Oosterbeek War Cemetery. I didn't know him as I was born Oct 44. If anyone has a photos of Border Regiment or knew him any info would be greatly received. Thank you. |
Spr. Isaac Lewthwaite Border Regiment My Great Grandfather's brother Isaac Lewthwaite, of Whitehaven, Cumberland, served with the Border Regiment. He came back a broken man, he did not go back to his wife, before the war he had married into an Italian family, but due to his experiences as a POW, he said that the Italians were a cruel breed of people and would never forgive them for the way they treated them. He moved in to live with his brother David but became troubled and he drifted. His wife use to go looking for him, no one had seen him for about 2months then they found him dead in a derelict building, that was about 1947. Ive being doing my family tree and am finding snippets of info, to put a picture to the man. |
L/Cpl. Septimus Tweddle 9th Btn. Border Regiment My father Septimus Tweddle served in Burma from 1942 to 1946 he took part in the battles for Kennedy Peak and Imphal. He later fought the Dacoits. He also assisted in the rescue of POW's on the Burma Road, one of them being a fellow Geordie who was his local barber back home. During his time in Burma he told me his patrol got shot up and they scattered. My father got lost and was missing presumed dead, my mother was informed. His account was as far as I remember was that he was missing a long time. He eventually was picked up by a British patrol and returned to friendly lines for interegation regarding his survival whilst missing. |
Cpl. James Mossop Rothery 4th Btn. Border Regiment (d.Nov 1945) My Grandfather, James Mossop Rothery, served in the 4th Battalion The Border Regiment from 1940 - 1941. He was an iron ore miner in Bigrigg, Cumberland and died at the age of 41 in November 1945. |
Gordon Ennion 1st Battalion Border Regiment My uncle, Gordon Ennion, served in the 1st Airlanding Brigade in WW2 - as part of the 1st Border Regt. He never spoke much about his army service but I know he 'escaped'from a Germao POW camp after Arnhem and actually made his way back to England. He also, as a glider anti-tank man, suffered the chaos of Sicily when many of the Brigade actually drowned. I know my uncle swam to shore when his glider broke up. He was taken prisoner at Arnhem and it seems was inprisoned in Hohenstein POW Camp, from which he somehow escaped. Such people are heroes and what they did should never ever be forgotten. My uncle Gordon is worth ten of me - and of everyone I know. |
The Story of the Border Regiment, 1939-1945 Philip J Shears More information on: |
The Story of the Border Regiment, 1939-1945When Dragons Flew: Illustrated History of the 1st Battalion the Border Regiment, 1939-45 Stuart Eastwood, Charles Gray & Alan T Green This is a truly stunning book. Over 230 glossy paper pages loaded with both colour and black-and-white photographs, many of them meticulously researched to provide additional explanations, down to who actually features in those photographs. The book details the 1st Borders' run up to Operation Market-Garden, and it's participation in and around Arnhem and Oosterbeek in September 1944, the latter done on a day-by-day basis. This written account features and names many of the characters within the battalion, and the part they played in the fateful battle More information on: |
When Dragons Flew: Illustrated History of the 1st Battalion the Border Regiment, 1939-45Border Regiment Roll of Honour 1939-45 RR & JM Walsh More information on: |
Border Regiment Roll of Honour 1939-45
