Roll Call
On the following pages I have listed, where known, the names of men serving in the 1st Buckinghamshire Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.
In Memoriam – Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery
This page contains photographs of each of the headstones of the men killed at Hazebrouck and whose final resting place is here. The graves are in the Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery in an area that is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). In this plot also are men from other battalions as well as graves of men for whom there is no name. I think it is quite possible there may be Bucks men in the unamed graves as well as men who were killed but whose bodies where never recovered.
There may also be other men whose bodies may have been repatriated home by their families after the war.
I know from conversations with veterans in the past that no matter how well life treated them after the war comrades killed in action were never far from their minds. Some returned regularly to pay homage and all the men of the Battalion were conscious of “having stood shoulder to shoulder with heroes” (the words of my father recalling these events with tears in his eyes many years later).
If you need more information about the men honoured on this page or about anyone killed in action but not buried here, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website is easy to search and full of useful information.
In Memoriam – Laid to rest elsewhere -other Commonwealth War Graves Commission sites
Both before and after the battle at Hazebrouck Bucks men will have been mortally wounded and laid to rest elsewhere. One such appears to be R Lawley whose grave is in Rue du Bois Cemetery in the forest of Nieppe, a few kilometres south of Hazebrouck. He is the only Ox and Bucks man in this cemetery and most of the rest of the WW2 graves are the Queen's Own West Kent. Sadly his headstone does not identify him as a Bucks Battalion member and consequently it does not bear the Bucks Battalion crest. It is the light infantry bugle that has been carved into his headstone. CWGC website confirms him as a Bucks Battalion member, although his service number is different to the Bucks Battalion numbers. Forces War Records website indicates that R Lawley's fate was not known to the War Office Casualty section until October 1941. These records confirm him as an Ox and Bucks Light Infantry man but do not identify his battalion.
This demonstrates the considerable difficulty for the CWGC in recovering, identifying and laying to rest with dignity those fallen n battle.
Battalion Roll Call
Soon to be added is a list that includesd the names of those men in the Battalion who served in France and Belgium in 1940 that I have so far been able to identify. It details the sources of information that I have used which have been drawn for the papers of the Buckinghamshire Military Museum Trust held in the Buckinghamshire Archives, County Hall. Ayelsbury.
The officers who served have been included as an annex. Officers' names are always cited in diaries, publications, army lists etc. whereas the ordinary soldier and NCO is only rarely named and therefore remains largely invisible. I wish to redress the balance and hence prominenence here has been given to to the men of the Battalion.
POW lists
A list of men taken priosnerr, together witheir POW number and camp inwhich they were held, willbe added shortly.
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