Page 204 - The Bugle 2018

RA (all the way from exercise in Estonia) and their Association, as well as 40 members of The Rifles. They were joined by numerous friends and families and what seemed like all the villagers. There was also a much-photographed group of Great War re-enactors. No-one was counting, but there must have been almost 300 present which is a fine tribute to the men of 2nd Devons and 5 Battery RFA who
fought so valiantly exactly 100 years before.
The village Mayor, M Francois Saillard, welcomed everyone and expressed the honour which the village felt in conducting such an important event. Lt Gen Sandy Storrie gave a most fitting and moving intro- duction and there followed a number of individual accounts of the battle, three being read by relatives of those who had written them - Private W R Dyer of B Company 2nd Devons by his granddaughter Mrs Wendy Arnot; Captain J H Massey, Battery Captain of 5 Battery read by his nephew Mr John Massey Stewart and Gunner Fay read by his grandson, Mr Tony Furnival. After buglers from The Rifles sounded Last Post and Reveille, Maj Gen Bryan Dutton recited The Exhortation before wreaths were laid by the four main groups represented: The Devon and Dorsets, 5 Battery, The Rifles and the Village. Everyone present then moved a short distance to a huge barn where a splendid buffet lunch was laid out. While lunch was being eaten, the Mayor presented Maj Gen Dutton, as Chairman of Regimental Trustees, with a commemorative medal and he was in turn presented with splendid mementos of the event – a picture and account of the battle by 5 Battery and the well-known picture of The Devons at the battle, complete with Croix de Guerre and Devons
capbadge.
Rifles buglers with reenactors in Devon Regiment WW1 uniforms
Obituaries
Corporal S Hodge MM Stanley Hodge was called up at the age of 18 in 1943 and joined the Essex Regiment before transferring to the Dorsets prior to D-Day. He was awarded the Military Medal while acting as a section commander with 4th Dorsets in NW Europe. His MM citation reads:
Cpl Hodge joined the Battalion in July 1944 as a Private Soldier. He was soon promoted and has commanded a section with great ability and outstanding bravery from then until the end of the war. He has fought at the approach to Mt Pincon, R/Seine, Arnhem, Heinsburg Salient, Cleve Forest and the Rhine crossing with great enthusiasm. At Cleve Forest he showed himself to be a very brave man, attacking Spandaus with his light machine gun by hip firing. He has taken part in upwards of ten patrols as he was always a volunteer for this duty and on these patrols he has killed several of the enemy. Cpl Hodge, who is nineteen years old, is an enthusiast and a man with a bitter hatred of the Germans, which combined made him one of the most outstanding section commanders. For a short period he commanded his platoon with equal success. His efforts were second to none in his rank.
Despite being unable to swim, he crossed the Neder Rijn at Driel during his Battalion’s brave attempt to rescue the Airborne troops trapped on the north bank. He remained with the 4th Battalion and served with them in Austria after the war.
Corporal Stanley Hodge MM died on 1st July 2017 aged 91.
CPL HODGE, WHO IS NINETEEN YEARS OLD, IS AN ENTHUSIAST AND A MAN WITH A BITTER HATRED OF THE GERMANS
210 REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATIONS
Major F J Cann John Cann was commissioned into The Devon- shire Regiment in 1957 and shortly thereafter sailed to Cyprus with 1 D and D after Amalgamation. In 1960 he was posted to the Ghana School of Infantry from where he also served in the Congo where he witnessed the rare sight of two tribes going to war against each other armed only with bows, arrows and spears. John was a fine all-round sportsman, particularly ski bob (11th in the 1982 British National Championships, shooting (49th in the Army 100 at Bisley in 1965) and tennis for BAOR. A fitting footnote for a Regimental officer was that according to Burke’s he was a direct descendant of Tom Cobleigh of Widecombe Fair fame!
Major John Cann died on 18th November 2017 aged 81.
Mr C Lloyd Cliff Lloyd epitomised so many young men who fought in WW2. In 1938, realising that war was imminent, he joined the TA with many of his friends. He served in 4th Dorsets (TA) throughout the War, being wounded by shrapnel in Normandy. Along with other members of the Battalion, he was taken prisoner while conducting the near-suicidal operation to extract members of 1st Airborne Division across the Neder Rijn at Arnhem and remained a PoW for eight months until the end of the War. During his service he never won any awards, was never promoted and, like most of his peers in that territorial battalion, left the Army at the end of the war and went back to living his life in North Dorset. But he never forgot his comrades and was a committed member of the Regimental Associ- ation for the next 70 years.
Mr Cliff Lloyd died on 6th February 2018 aged 99
WO1 K J Fitzgerald Kevin Fitzgerald enlisted in Exeter in 1972 and served in 1 D and D as well as a period as an instructor at RMAS in the mid 1980s. As a particularly talented field soldier, he was 2IC of the Battalion’s COP during one of five tours in Northern Ireland as well as serving with the Recce Platoon on South Georgia. Since retiring from the Army in 1996 he became a leading light in the Regimental Association, being a Committee Member as well as leading the very successful Exeter Branch.
WO1 Kevin Fitzgerald died on 25th May 2018 aged 61
THE RIFLES