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trophy for the best WO/Sgt shot at the Battalion Shoot. Throughout his TA career was a very active member of the Battalion. David eventually moved to HQ Company
as QM [T] at Silver Street, Worcester until
the disbandment of the 7th battalion in
1967 when he joined The Worcestershire Territorials RA, TAVR111. On the disbandment of this unit and the formation of 214 Battery RA he was a founder member of the Worcestershire Regiment Cadre; formed to provide the basis of a new unit if the
need arose, and indeed it did arise on the expansion of TAVR and the formation of Light Infantry & Mercian Volunteers in 1971. The Cadre became A Company [Worcestershire] with David as 2IC and then OC when it became A Company, 2nd Battalion Mercian Volunteers; a position he retained until
his retirement in 1978. For his service to the TA and TAVR he was awarded the Territorial Efficiency Medal and the Territorial Decoration.
He was a lifelong member of the WRA and in later years, the MVRA and a supporter of all things Regimental. He was also a member of the ‘Ancient Order of Foresters’.
DURRANT
Mrs Ruth DURRANT BEM, widow of the late Major LS Durrant of The Worcestershire Regiment and a dedicated worker for SSAFA, died on 12 June 2018 a few days before her 100th birthday.
DUTTON
14577577 Sgt TC Dutton of Bromsgrove died on 9 January 2019 aged 93. He was called up on April 1943 and landed in Normandy with the 1st Battalion The Worcestershire Regiment
in June 1944 where he fought through until wounded near Vernonnet on 27 August. After recovering he served in HQ BAOR, rising to the rank of Sgt before discharge in September 1947.
EDWARDES
14420659 Pte William ‘Bill’ Wilson EDWARDES BEM Ld’H passed away on 6 May 2019 aged 92. Born in Islington, North London, when war broke out he was evacuated out of London and then to
South Wales. Missing home, he returned to London and started working, making parts for anti-aircraft guns. At 16 1⁄2 , he told the recruiting team he was 18 and took the ‘Kings Shilling’ and later in life he fronted a TV Documentary on those who joined up illegally and under age.
After basic training Bill enlisted into the Queens own Royal Kent Regiment and then the 7th Hampshires and was then posted to the 1st Battalion the Worcestershire Regiment who were in
the 43rd Wessex Division training for the invasion of Normandy. Bill, aged 17 was in the advance party of his Battalion landing
in Normandy, after D Day, as a Stretcher Bearer. All Units of this Division landed at Courcelles -sur-Mer by the 24 June, then proceeded to a concentration area near Bayeux. In no time they were in action following up the 15th Scottish Div into the village of Cheux, clearing Germans out of Mouen, Baron and other villages on the line of the river Odon. Their first real test was ‘Hill 112’ a very strategic feature for Hitler and Rommel`s plans where there was hand to hand fighting against SS troops and SS Panzer Divisions. Their first assault was not successful but the second was. Bill moved with the Division to take Mt Pincon, followed by a forced crossing of the Seine at Vernon, Operation Market Garden at Arnhem and finally the capture of Bremen in May 1945. The workload of stretcher bearers during this period was very high and Bill later told of his experiences and being very afraid when everyone was taking cover from the hail of fire and having to leave his slit trench when the shout for a medic or stretcher or medic was shouted for. Bill was invalided out of the Army a year later. In 1994, together with other war veterans he established the 43rd Wessex Association and organised various returns to France and the places that the Wessex Division had fought and became well known to the Wessex Association Patron, Prince Edward the Earl of Wessex. In 2000, Bill and other association members took a one ton boulder of Malvern granite, at their own expense, to the site of a heated battle that the Worcester’s fought with a German tiger tank, that has become known as the ‘Worcester’s Layby’. The Boulder has two brass plaques one in English and one in French and was unveiled in 2000.
Bill was clearly the focal point and driving force behind the Wessex Association,
he became Secretary and the very last Chairman and arranged that the Wessex Association Standard was laid up in Exeter Cathedral in 2015 where it now hangs beside the Divisional Roll of Honour. Bill also became involved in the establishment of a corresponding Association in Normandy, L`Association ODON-COTE112 with its members drawn from the communes around Hill 112, the scene of the epic battle in 1944. Relationships have remained strong over the years to the extent that veterans and their families, associated with the 43rd Wessex Association are invited every five years to join the French in celebrating that famous victory on hill 112; ironically the 75th Anniversary celebrations will be held this year on 7 July, 2 months after Bills death.
In 2013, Bill was awarded the British Empire Medal in the New Years Honours List for his charity work in the local community of Chandlers Ford and for
his outstanding contribution to the 43rd Wessex Association. Subsequently, he was also presented with the Legion D`Honneur at an appropriate ceremony in the D Day Museum in Portsmouth.
FOTHERINGHAM
22139398 Pte Edgar Arthur FOTHERINGHAM of Carlton in Lindrick, Worksop, died on 27 April 2019 aged 88. Edgar enlisted into the Army on 15 May 1949 and trained at Budbrook Barracks, Warwick before joining the 1st Bn The Sherwood Foresters at Goslar. He was discharged on 3 May 1951. He then joined the 8th Bn until 1955.
GILLIES
24122865 Pte William ‘Billy’ GILLIES died on the 20 May 2019 aged 69. Billy enlisted into the Sherwood Foresters Regiment in 1968 and went on to serve in 1st Battalion the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment, upon amalgamation, serving in Berlin and Northern Ireland. Billy discharged from service in 1972.
HALL
24203909 Pte Stuart ‘Kes’ HALL of Mansfield died on 31 July 2018 aged 65. Kes enlisted into The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment in May 1970 as a Junior soldier and after joining the Regiment served with it in UK, BAOR, Berlin and NI. He left the Army in May 1974. In civilian life Kes worked with the National Coal Board and was an enthusiastic volunteer
at Foresters House in Chilwell with the Regimental Museum and RHQ until 2014.
HARDING
14406670 Pte Charles George HARDING of Worcester died on 21 November 2018 aged 93. Charles served with C Coy 1st Battalion The Worcestershire Regiment.
HERON
Colonel Charles Alan Colin ‘Colin’ Heron OBE of Killyleagh, County Down died on 17 July 2019 aged 72. Colin was commissioned as a 2Lt into the 1st Battalion The Sherwood Foresters
in Minden in 1968 where he joined as
a Platoon Comd. On amalgamation he served with 1 WFR in Warminster and
then with 13 Army Youth Team from September 1970 to September 1971 as OC. He returned to 1 WFR as a Platoon Comd and then Coy 2IC before taking
over as Operations Officer for the Ballykelly tour. He was then appointed as Adjt of
2 MERCIAN Volunteers from September 1976 to September 1977. After attendance at RMCS Shrivenham and Staff College in Pakistan he returned to 1 WFR in December 1978 as OC B Coy in Hemer and then becoming SO2 Ops 4 Armd Div Herford from January 1982 to December 1983. Colin was then appointed 2IC 1WFR from 1984 to 1985 before taking Command of
1 MERCIAN Volunteers in Wolverhampton
THE MERCIAN EAGLE
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