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post until hanging up his uniform after 31 years service. He remained resident in the Colchester area after completing his career working for East Anglia Reserve Force and Cadet Association, Chelmsford, as a Works Officer, holding responsibility for arranging maintenance of RFCA buildings across the Eastern District. He finally retired to enjoy his vegetable plot before being diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a disease which subsequently took his life. He is survived by Freda, his two sons Andrew and Richard, as well as five grandchildren, all of whom live in the Colchester area. His funeral took place at St. John’s Church, Colchester on Tuesday 25th June.
WO2 William Bachelor
WO2 Bill Bachelor died on Monday 8th July 2013 in Queen’s Hospital, Burton- upon-Trent. Bill enlisted into 1st Battalion The Mercian Volunteers in 1968 in Burton TA Centre and took part in most of the annual camps and NATO Reinforcement Exercises in the Cold War period. He rose to the rank of WO2 and was CSM of C Coy in Burton and later moved to the Regimental Recruiting Team in Tamworth. He continued to serve when the Battalion became 3rd Battalion, The Staffordshire Regiment. After he completed his service he joined the Army Cadet Force and served for many more years with them, finally retiring in 2007. He will be remembered as a staunch family man, a natural comedian, good friend and someone who would encourage people to go one better. As he rose in experience, he developed a reputation as a mentor. Our condolences go to his wife Gill, his two sons and two daughters.
His funeral took place at Bretby Crematorium, near Burton-upon-Trent on Monday 22nd July.
Captain Anthony Barrett-Green
Anthony Barrett-Green died in June 2012. He served as a National Service Officer
in 1st Battalion, The North Staffordshire Regiment in Trieste around 1952 – 3. Afterwards he joined the 5th/6th Battalion and served with them in the Burton Coy and was appointed as MTO. He worked for the Meir Company, a pottery firm in Stoke-on- Trent. Our condolences go to his wife Anne and their four children.
Major Maurice Beedle
Maurice Beedle died peacefully at home on Saturday 2nd February 2013, aged 90. He was born on 20th May 1922 in Croydon and brought up in Kent. He was commissioned into The North Staffordshire
Regiment in November 1941 and joined the 7th Battalion in Ballykinler. He volunteered for overseas service and was posted
to the King’s African Rifles in 1943 and remained with them until 1948. in 1949 he was posted to 1st Battalion, The South
Staffordshire Regiment and served with them for four years, including two as Adjutant. In 1954 he attended Staff College and this was followed by three years in East Africa. He rejoined the 1st North Staffords
in 1958 and continued to serve after amalgamation with the new 1 STAFFORDS. His next posting was with 5th South Staffords as Training Major, followed by staff postings to Ghana (where he was awarded the MBE), Aden, the Ministry of Defence and HQ BAOR. He retired in 1976 and was appointed as Regimental Secretary, a job he did for eight years. His period covered the Derry, Belfast and Belize deployments. He also began the planning for the presentation of New Colours in Colchester in 1983.
After he retired he remained as a Museum Trustee and came up weekly to complete research and answer queries. In 2007
his hard work earned him the Tamworth Herald’s Award of the Volunteer of the Year Award when he was 85. He continued visiting the museum until failing eyesight prevented him from travelling up, but his legend lives on as the current Trustees still talk about him now. There are very few officers who served between 1943 – 2000 who would not have come across him. His wife Jane died in 1995 and he is survived by his daughter Elizabeth. There was a woodland burial in Stychbrook Cemetery on 13th April, which was attended by family, Regimental friends, Friends of the St. Mary’s Centre in Lichfield and Lichfield District Council.
Gerald Cookson
Gerald Cookson died peacefully on
5th August 2013, aged 95. He was born
in 1918 in Preston and was a teacher
prior to WW2 in Stoke-on-Trent. He was commissioned into The South Staffordshire Regiment in 1943 and was seconded to
the King’s African Rifles in Kenya. His Army service was completed in 1946. After the War he continued his teaching career and eventually became Head of Cardinal Bourne School in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. His work was much appreciated by the Italian community in the area, because he was awarded the Italian Knighthood and Papal Knighthood. He became a councillor and was Mayor of Broxbourne in 1981-2. His funeral took place in St. Augustine’s Church in Hodderston in Hertfordshire on 16August 2013. We are grateful to Commander Eugene Morgan for sending the summary of his life.
Corporal Thomas Cooper
Thomas Cooper died on 13th August 2013. He served with 1st Battalion, The South Staffordshire Regiment from October 1948 to September 1953. This included Hong Kong, Ballykinler and Minden. His funeral took place in Darlaston on 29th August and members of the Staffordshire Regiment Association paraded with the Association mascot LCpl Watchman V.
Our condolences go to his daughter Adele Bradley.
Private Andrew Cox
Andrew Cox died in January 2013, he was taken very ill in the month before
and died suddenly. Andrew served
with 1 STAFFORDS from 1988 – 94 in Fallingbostel, Northern Ireland, Chester
and he completed his service as a Lance Corporal in the Army Youth Team based in Lichfield. After he left the Army, he moved to Gibraltar. He leaves a wife Dawn and two children Nicola and Tommy. His funeral took place at St. Bartholomew’s Church, Norton and Carmountside Crematorium in Milton, Stoke-on-Trent on 17th January.
Major James Ellison MBE
Major Jim Ellison MBE died on 24th June 2023 aged 90. There will be few members of The North Staffordshire, South Staffordshire and Staffordshire Regiments who will not have heard
of him. He was born 24th March 1913 in St. Helens in Lancashire, his parents worked for Pilkington’s Glass. He enlisted into the Royal Welch Fusiliers in 1940 and later transferred to The Parachute Regiment with whom he served in North Africa, Italy and fought at Arnhem Bridge with 2 PARA. He finished his service in Palestine as RSM
of 2PARA and it was here that he saw 1st Battalion, The North Staffordshire Regiment, which made an impression on him. He married Doris Spencer and worked for Pilkington’s until he re-enlisted as a Private in 1951. He joined The North Staffordshire Regiment, his first quarter being a room in the Dog Inn in Whittington.
He served in Trieste, Korea, Hong
Kong and he was RSM when the North Staffordshire Regiment amalgamated with The South Staffordshire Regiment in 1959 and he was appointed RSM of the new 1st Battalion. He and his Commanding Officer, Louis Hargroves made an exceptionally strong team. According to Tom Mason, even the birds stood to attention when they marched around camp. He was RSM when the 1st Battalion received New Colours in 1959 and was to see his son Terry become RSM and receive the New Colours in Colchester in 1983. He was commissioned in 1961, was awarded the MBE in 1966 and served as Quartermaster of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst before finally retiring from the Army in 1973.
However, he did not retire from the Regiment as he settled in Lichfield and for over thirty years acted as a senior figure within the Regimental Association, was President of Lichfield Branch and Life President of the famous Past & Present Sergeants’ Mess Dinner Club. Doris died in 1987 and he married Irene Hudson in 1989. They spent twenty years together, until she died in 2009. He is survived by his three sons Terry, Brian and Alan and their families. His funeral took place at St. Peter’s Church, Hednesford and a large
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