The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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208973 L/Sgt William Frederick Dixon British Army Welsh Guards from:Caterham Surrey UK (d.29th June 1942) My Dad, William Dixon enlisted in the Welsh Guards in 1928, for 7years and 5 on reserve. He served in London and Egyptin 1929. At the outbreak of war in 1939 he was recalled to the colours. Due to his previous service he was classed as a trained soldier at that time. He was at Dunkirk & survived. In 1941, a training camp at Codford St Mary, Wiltshire was set up, he was sent there in October 1941. It was close to Weston Super Mare. In my research I contacted an ex Guards instructor who told me that soldiers were billeted there from Codford St Mary, whilst on courses. On the night of 29th June 1942, Weston Super Mare was severely damaged by German bombs. I believe over 100 people were killed that night, my Dad was one of them, at the age of 36. The Official War Diaries for his unit showed 3 other ranks from his unit were killed that night. Many years later I visited Weston Super Mare & visited the library and contacted a local historian. I found a reference card that showed that after the raid, some of the victims had been laid in a makeshift mortuary in a church, my Dad being one of them. He was brought home for burial to Caterham, Surrey. He is interred in the Guard's section of the Chuchyard. For many years from 1875 to the 1980s, Caterham Barracks was the base for many Guards Regiments. But in Weston Super Mare Cemetery, there is a huge section with the graves of those killed that night, amongst them other servicemen. It was hard for my Mother to accept the fact that he was killed whilst on duty in England. Mary Parker Add to this record.  Related Content: Operation Dynamo - The Evacuation from Dunkirk and nearby Beaches Battle of France and The Low Countries 1940 Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. 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. Contact us. 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.