War Memorial - WW2

   Herbert H Fortune Killed in Action on 17th April 1943. He was a Sargent in the RAF Volunteer Reserve and stationed at Mildenhall, Suffolk. Herbert was the radio operator and gunner in a Stirling MkIII. They took off from Mildenhall on route for their target of Mannheim-Ludwigshafen Germany. Herbert was 25 years old. He was the son of Robert and Sarah Jane Fortune (buried at Christ Church, Derry Hill) and husband to Lillie Fortune of Chippenham. Herbert lies in the Rheinberg War Cemetry in Germany. His grave is inscribed – At the going down of the sun we will remember you. 

 Pilot Officer Herbert George Haddrell was born in 1913 and grew up in Derry Hill. He lived in Studley Lodge (Bowood White Gates) with his parents and went to Derry Hill school. 

On 15th October 1944 he was at the controls when his Halifax aircraft took off from Sandtoft on a night cross-country training flight. While flying at 12,000 feet, the port inner engine caught fire and the crew were unable to quell, or control, the flames as they spread towards the fuselage. Three crew members managed to bale out from the aircraft but four of the crew (including Herbert George aged 30) stayed with the aircraft as the rear gunner who had difficulty in escaping from his turret. The Halifax smashed into the heavily wooded Copreston Fell on Glendhu Hill in Kielder Forest - a wooden cross marks the spot.

His body was returned home to Derry Hill and buried at Christ Church. George’s name is engraved on our war memorial.

 Lance Corporal, Service Number: 5674978, Hampshire Regiment 5th Bn. Died 08 February 1944 aged 27 years old. Thomas is buried at Minturno Cemetery, Italy. He was the son of Edward and Louise James; husband of Vera James, of Derry Hill. Thomas and Vera Haddrell had married early in 1942. At dawn on 7 February 1944 the 5th Battalion repulsed another determined attack on Ornito, inflicting considerable losses on the enemy. That night, as part of a general attack by 138 Brigade, they attacked the neighbouring mountain, Cerasola, which was still in German hands. 

   Lieutenant Lord Edward Norman Petty-Fitzmaurice was the youngest son of Lt.-Col. Henry William Edmund Petty-Fitzmaurice, D.S.O., M.V.O., 6th Marquess of Lansdowne, and his wife, Elizabeth Caroline Stanley Hope. He was the brother to Charles Hope Lansdowne. He was in the 3rd Battalion, Irish Guards and was killed on 11 Aug 1944 aged 22. He is buried at Tilly-sur-Seulles, Departement du Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France.