The Wartime Memories Project
The Second World War - Day by Day.

Home>Date Index


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

28th May 1940

On this day:





If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.




Remembering those who died this day.

  • Appleby Cyril. Pte. (d.28th/29th May 1940)
  • Baldwin Charles Frederick. L/Cpl. (d.28th May 1940)
  • Blundell John Edward. Gnr. (d.28th May 1940)
  • Cooke Paul. 2Lt. (d.28th May 1940)
  • Cumming James Hamilton. Pte. (d.28th May 1940)
  • Findlay James Wilson. L/Cpl. (d.28th May 1940)
  • Gardiner Frederick. Pte. (d.28th May 1940)
  • Gillson Frank Henry. Able Seaman. (d.28th May 1940)
  • Grice Charlie. PO. (d.28th May 1940)
  • Howard Robert. Pte. (d.28th May 1940)
  • Howell William Robert. Pte. (d.28th May 1940)
  • Kahlow Thomas. Pte. (d.28th May 1940)
  • Kirby Arthur. L/Cpl (d.28th May 1940 )
  • Lynch John. Pte. (d.28th May 1940)
  • Nash Raymond Herbert. Pte. (d.Between 25th & 28th May 1940)
  • Payne Earnest Edwin. Pte. (d.28th May 1940)
  • Preston John William. Able Seaman. (d.28th May 1940)
  • Thomson David Andrew Graham. 2Lt. (d.28th May 1940)

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



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.
  • 22nd April 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 263973 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 the 28th of May 1940?


There are:78 items tagged 28th of May 1940 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.




Stories from 28th May 1940





Pvt. William Jones. British Army, 1st Battalion The Loyal Regiment.

Private William Jones of the 1st Battalion, The Loyal Regiment was captured at Calais on 28 May 40 and arrived at Stalag XXA (3) on 9th June 40. His Prisoner of War No. was 11677. He was a prisoner until he was repatriated in 1945 and arrived home in April of that year. His service No. was 3852683. My father would never discuss anything about the time when he was a prisoner so we know very little except for a lot of letters he had sent my mother and various photographs from the camp he was in. He was on the long march that they did through Poland and of course survived. He had nightmares for years and years. He came from Dowlais South Wales, but after his marriage he lived in Oldham.

Vivien Orriss



Pte. Raymond Herbert " " Nash. , 4th Btn . (d.Between 25th & 28th May 1940)

G.Tomey



Pte. Robert Howard. British Army, 1st Battalion Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. (d.28th May 1940)

Robert Howard was my grandfather on my mothers side. My nan (his wife) had always thought that he had been injured in the withdrawal from Dunkirk and died on the beach, I am not sure how she got this info because the truth was discovered about ten years ago when my mum went to visit his grave in Hondeshoote, Belgium. He is buried in a section of the graveyard dedicated to the 50 men of mixed regiments and armies who stayed behind to fight a rearguard action against the Germans, as far as it says on the memorial none survived.

My mum has told me he was a regular soldier who had joined up as a young man and said that he had served some where in India possibly Burma. Before the war as she has a picture of him in a pith helmet. He was in the first battalion and I am trying to find out more about his service record

Adrian Beddis



PO. Charlie Grice. Royal Navy, HMS Cairo. (d.28th May 1940)

Information from Mrs Molly Matthews (formerly Grice) sister of Charlie Grice: My brother, Charlie Grice died of wounds suffered during the attack on HMS Cairo while defending the coast of Marvin, Norway on 28th May 1940. He was on the guns when the attack happened. The captain of the Cairo, PV McLaughlin, wrote to my parents stating that PO Grice led crew members in fighting a fire on deck despite his serious injuries. He had to be taken below decks where he died of his wounds. Captain McLaughlin said in his letter that if Charlie had lived he would have received an award for his bravery.

John McEwan



L/Cpl. Charles Frederick Baldwin. British Army, 8th Btn. King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster). (d.28th May 1940)

Charles Baldwin was my great, great uncle. From what I know of him he was a kind and funny man who my grandad remembers fondly.

He was at Dunkirk fighting in the rearguard and I believe he was hit by either a shell or bomb and killed. His charred wallet was posted home to his mother. He was 33 and had no children.

Edan Milner



2Lt. Paul Cooke. British Army, 1st Battalion Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry. (d.28th May 1940)

Like so many who lost treasured sons in service my grandparents, and indeed his sisters (one of which my mother), never spoke of the loss of Paul Cooke in the Battle of the Ypres-Comines Canal.

He died on 28th of May 1940 and it is only now that I have read about the significance of this event in the Dunkirk evacuation story. On the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site, there is this statement on his page, 'Following the path of duty he passed beyond the sight of man'. I do not know how this statement came about. (This is the inscription on his grave stone chosen by his parents, editor)

Paul was 24, an Oxford graduate who represented Oxford and England in rugby. He played alongside Obolensky who became famous for enabling a rare win against New Zealand. Before the war Paul travelled to South America on rugby tours and seems to have been a bit of a debs delight on board ship.




Pte. Cyril Appleby. British Army, 2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire . (d.28th/29th May 1940)

Cyril Appleby was a young 20 year old uncle of mine. We never knew what happened to Uncle Cyril, my mother's brother.

Geoffrey Squire



Pte. Frederick Gardiner. British Army, 8th Battalion Kings Own Royal (Lancaster) Regiment . (d.28th May 1940)

Fred Gardiner was my mother's youngest brother and was only 27. He was attached to GHQ as a lorry driver that is all I know. He died in Belgium during the retreat to Dunkirk in 1940. He is buried in Adinkerke.

Dorothy McQuillen



Pte. Earnest Edwin Payne. British Army , 4th Btn. Royal East Kent Regiment. (d.28th May 1940)

Earnest Payne was part of British Expeditionary Force evacuating from St Nazaire. He perished aged 20 aboard HMS Lancastria and is Buried at Noirmoutier-en-L'ile (L'Herbaudiere) Communal Cemetery at Vendee, France. He was the Son of Harry Gordon Payne, Company Quartermaster Serjeant with the Somerset Light Infantry who died on the 2nd July 1940 aged 48, board SS Accordia Star torpedoed North West of Ireland.

Clive Baldwin



2Lt. David Andrew Graham Thomson. British Army, 6th Btn. Black Watch. (d.28th May 1940)

David Thomson was the son of Vice Admiral Evelyn Claude Ogilvie-Thomson, C.B., D.S.O., and of Agnes Ogilvie-Thomson, of Stanley, Perthshire. He served with the 6th Battalion, Black Watch in WW2. He died 28th of May 1940 aged 20 and is buried in Bas-Warneton (Neerwaasten) Communal Cemetery and commemorated on Dunning War Memorial and also on a plaque located on the tower of St Serf's Church Dunning. The plaque was erected by the War Comforts Committee in memory of the men of the Parish who died 1939-45.

Information about the family and place of burial obtained from Commonwealth War Graves Commission records.

David Mallinson



Pte. William Robert Howell. British Army, 2nd Btn. Royal Norfolk Regiment . (d.28th May 1940)

William Howell served with the 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment in WW2. He died in France the day after the Le Paradis massacre, 28th of May 1940, aged 27 years and is remembered on the war memorial at Dunkirk. He is also remembered in his local church in Needham, Norfolk.

Angela Badcock



Gnr. John Edward Blundell. British Army, 69th Medium Regiment Royal Artillery. (d.28th May 1940)

My uncle, John Blundell had only been abroad with the 69th Medium Regiment, RA for less than a month. He is buried in Kemmel Chateau, his date of death being given as on or after 28th May. He died of wounds at the age of just 20 years. Records show that he died at Kemmel, but I have no idea how he died as he is not mentioned in any of the war diaries, to my knowledge. RIP

Chris Haywood



Pte. James Hamilton Cumming. British Army, 6th Btn. Black Watch. (d.28th May 1940)

James Cumming served with 6th Black Watch. His date of birth is recorded as 26th Feb 1919.

Ülkü Öz



Pte. John Lynch. British Army, 6th Btn. Black Watch. (d.28th May 1940)

John Lynch served with the 6th Black Watch, he was 21 years of age when he died.











Can you help us to add to our records?

The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them


Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area?

If so please let us know.

Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.




Celebrate your own Family History

Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.

Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.














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.