The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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245515 RSM. William Haverson DCM. British Army 2nd Btn. Norfolk Regiment from:Mulbarton, Norwich (d.17th Dec 1991) Mulbarton's Most Famous Soldier, Regimental Sergeant Major Bill Haverson DCM of the Royal Norfolk Regiment died on 17th of December 1991 in his 93rd year. The Haverson family moved to Mulbarton in 1940 and all the children went to Mulbarton School. Bill Haverson had already seen service in World War I, and between the wars had served in India, Gibraltar and the "Home of the British Army", Aldershot. Pauline had been born at Marham, Gordon and Colin at Aldershot, Peter at Farnborough and June in India. The Norfolks were in France at the very start of World War 2 and in that desperate rearguard action leading to the miraculous evacuation of British troops at Dunkirk in 1940, Bill Haverson and his platoon succeeded in holding Aire Bridge on La Basse Canal in Northern France to allow battalion survivors to escape to fight again. As a result of this, he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, second only to the Victoria Cross in Military Honours. Bill became Regimental Sergeant Major of the Regiment and trained fresh troops for the now famous D-Day invasion of France in June 1944 which eventually led to the fall of Nazi Germany. After the war, Bill left the Army to become Mulbarton's postman for 17 years. He was also a School Governor, Parish Councillor, Secretary of the British Legion and was largely responsible to raising money for the clock on Mulbarton Church tower, placed as a reminder of those men who fought and died for our freedom. He was also the local Poppy Day organiser. Always the disciplinarian, as befits an RSM, the rows of seeds in his garden were immaculately straight. The story goes that he slept to attention! He was a collar and tie man and was concerned about his appearance to the end. Mrs Haverson died in 1985 and Bill spent his last years in Wymondham. Colin Haverson Add to this record.  Related Content: 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment 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.