WW2 Survivors
Introduction
We have an extensive section on this site listing all those connected with the Borough who died as a result of WW2 – see the A-Z pages (by surname) at the links below.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
But remembrance should not be only about the dead. We need also to remember the people who came through the horrors of war and rebuilt their lives. So, this page is dedicated to such WW2 survivors.
Currently, we have just a few (as below). Please help us add to these by submitting a wartime photo and a brief outline of any others – who, naturally, have to have some connection to the Borough of Epsom and Ewell. Please limit this to fairly basic details, with no more than a paragraph or two of text.
Peter Reed 2018
Index
BAPTISTE, Donald (“Don”) Eric
BUCKINGHAM, Harry Anthony (“Tony”)
COLLINS, Ernest Michael Sidney
HOBLYN (née Reed), Alice
PEDDIE, Arthur Richard (directs to a separate page)
REED, Charles Thomas
REED, James Joseph
ROSE, Ronald Ernest
TOMS, Percy Edwin
WING, Kenneth John Read
BAPTISTE, Donald (“Don”) Eric, CBE
Don and Daphne (née Meyn) at their 24 July 1943 Wedding
Photograph with thanks to Daphne Baptiste
Don was born on 29 January 1921 in Alberta, Canada, the second child of Merton & Jeannie Baptiste.
(Merton – or “Weston” in some records – was originally from the US but moved to Canada early in WW1 so that he could fight in the war with their forces. He was gassed in France and was brought back to Kent for treatment. It is understood that this is when he met Jeannie French. They married in the Elham District in Q1 1918. In due course, they returned to Canada where they had two children. Sadly, the marriage did not last and, in November 1924, the 27 year old Jeannie and her two young sons came back to the UK to live with her mother at 66 Rosenau Road, Battersea.)
At the beginning of WW2, the 18 year old Don, still in Battersea, was working as a Clerk with the National Rail Authority. Having been in the OTC at school, he volunteered for military service. After Sandhurst, he was assigned to the Lincolnshire Regiment, working on intelligence. In July 1943, he married Daphne Meyn.
On D-Day, 6 June 1944, Don – now a Captain and Brigade Intelligence Officer – was badly injured in the landings at Hermanville on “Sword Beach”. He was in hospital for six months before returning to duty.
After WW2, Don and Daphne made their home in Epsom, first facilitated by Harry and Bessie Roll – the bereaved parents of Don’s fellow officer, John Roll. They had two children: Anthony and Averil.
Don joined the Civil Service, working on the telecommunications side of the Post Office (later the Home Office). He headed the UK official team at the 1979 World Administrative Radio Conference (which re-cast the regulative framework for telecommunications across the world) and was awarded the CBE in recognition of his work.
Don lived in Epsom until his death in April 1998, for many years also serving as the Tower Master for the bells at Christ Church Epsom Common. He was outlived for 25 years by the widowed Daphne who died in 2023 just short of her 102nd birthday.
BUCKINGHAM, Harry Anthony (“Tony”)
Top: Tony, aged 24 – and in his 90s.
Bottom: the team (34 C-3-Y) at Acton Fire Station in December 1944
Pictures courtesy of Pam Buckingham, Tony’s widow
In 1940, the 18 year old Harry Anthony Buckingham (always known as “Tony”) – working as an administrator in J Lyons & Co – was called up for military service, and opted for the RAF. Much to his surprise, the medical assessed him as Grade 4 and unfit for military service. While the family doctor then found nothing wrong with him, he said one could not argue with authority.
Wanting to play his part in the war effort, Tony got taken on by the Auxiliary Fire Service – which found him to be Grade 1 and fit for fire fighting! Continuing with his day job, he reported for duty at Acton Fire Station in the evenings – undertaking to do the Station’s clerical work but on condition that he was always on the first call out. The Station’s West London location meant it was spared the worst of the Blitz, although its firemen were frequently called upon to fill vacancies at other stations caused by injury. In any event, the work was risky and dangerous: for instance, Tony was in a crew called out to an oil depot fire in Fulham and had to roll out 40 gallon drums of oil while bombs were still falling.
On 8 September 1944, Tony was in the crew called to Staveley Road in Chiswick where they found a large bomb crater and people being evacuated from badly damaged houses. To try to contain things, the authorities first announced that the explosion had been a gas main. In fact, it was the very first V2 rocket bomb to fall on the UK. Others, of course, followed and they became known as “flying gas mains”.
When peace came, Tony was discharged from the Fire Service. He continued at J Lyons & Co, moving between various departments, eventually retiring as a Contracts Manager dealing with bulk grocery sales to various public bodies.
In 1959, Tony married Pamela Jones. They settled in Epsom and had four children. Both Tony and Pam got closely involved in various aspects of local life, not least at Christ Church Epsom Common. Harry died in 2017, just short of his 95th birthday (so much for being Grade 4!).
COLLINS, Ernest Michael Sidney
Ernest in WW2 uniform – thought to be with his sister, Phyllis
Photograph with thanks to Bill Owen
Born in Southwark on 8 August 1923, the third and last child of
William Collins and Ewell-born Louisa E (née Ralph)
Prewar: resident with parents in Spring Street, Ewell
Wartime: Merchant Navy, apparently on North Atlantic routes
(His brother, Leading Aircraftman Walter T D Collins, was killed in Malta in 1942)
Postwar: Window Cleaner
No record has been found of Ernest getting married
He lived in Ewell until his death in Q1 1995
HOBLYN (née Reed), Alice
Born: Poplar 1922
Died: Epsom November 2022
War Time: Woodwork machinist also National Fire Service
Postwar: Factory and Shop worker
Married Michael Hoblyn, Epsom and had one daughter, Ann
REED, Charles Thomas
Born: 30 Nov 1914 Poplar
Died: December 2002 Epsom
War Time: PT Instructor
Postwar: Engraver (Printing Industry)
Married Constance Woolcott in 1942 and had one child, Marilyn, in 1945
REED, James Joseph
James and Evelyn at their 1944 Wedding
Born: Poplar 27 June 1921
Died : Epsom June 1994
War Time: RAF Leading Aircraftman 1 (Radar Technician)
Postwar: Process Engraver (Printing Industry)
Married Evelyn Gibb in Scotland and had 3 children: Ronald 1945; Patricia 1948; and Peter 1952
ROSE, Ronald Ernest
Ronald, in Egypt
Born: 15th May 1922 Epsom
Died: 26th June 1963, Epsom
War Time: Royal Corps of Signals no. 5957544 in Cairo, Egypt
Postwar: Carpenter in the Manor Hospital then trained as a S.R.N.
Married: Jessie Phillips in 1945 in Newcastle upon Tyne
Children: Twins John and Jeanne in 1946
TOMS, Percy Edwin
Percy being interviewed on return to the UK, 8 October 1945
Screen shot from a British Movietone Newsreel item, Copyright acknowledged
Percy was born in West Ham on 4 September 1919, the second of four children born to Alfred Hedley Toms and Clara Alice (née Parker – they had married in Q2 1913).
The September 1939 Register records the now 20 year old as an “Insurance Clerk” living with his mother and siblings at 23 Empress Avenue, Redbridge, East Ham. (For some reason, his father – a “Government Servant” – was recorded in the Register staying at 9 Argyle Gardens, Upminster, Hornchurch.)
In Q4 1940, and registered in the local Surrey Mid Eastern District, Percy married Eileen Margaret Marshall – daughter of the third generation Epsom Fishmonger, Arthur Norris Pierce Marshall – recorded in the 1939 Register living with her parents at 14 Park Hill Road, Ewell. The newly-weds set up home at 17 Percival Way, Ewell.
Percy was called up for WW2 duty, assigned to the RAF as a Corporal (918500) and sent for service in the Far East. He was taken Prisoner of War by the Japanese on 17 March 1943 (about a month after the fall of Singapore) in imprisoned in Siam (modern-day Thailand). He was fortunate to survive the well-documented privations of that incarceration. His camp was liberated on 2 September 1945 – 2½ weeks after the Japanese surrender and VJ Day.
Percy and some 1,500 other Far East PoWs were transported home on the SS Corfu. He was the only RAF member on board, was the first person to disembarked from the SS Corfu on its arrival in Southampton on 8 October 1945. The screenshot above is from the brief interview he gave to the British Movietone News reporter about halfway through a 4¼ minute newsreel item about the prisoners and their return.
Percy returned to Eileen at 17 Percival Way, Ewell. Their only child, Sandra, was born locally in Q4 1947. The family then moved away from the district. In Q1 1975 and aged only 55, Percy died in his pre-war area of Redbridge. The widowed Eileen later moved to Ashford in Kent where, aged 74, she died in Q2 1992.
WING, Kenneth John Read
Born: 25th March 1914 Epsom
Died: 22nd September 1986 Epsom
War Time: Gloucestershire Regiment
Postwar: Worked for W.H. Smith on Epsom Station for 45 years
Married Constance Lilian Chilcott December 1941 Welwyn Garden City