Our main D-Day 80 page Driver. Royal Army Service Corps. 398 (Airborne) Composite Company. No. T/4623236. [caption id="attachment_12302" align="alignleft" width="202"] Driver James William Orton[/caption] Early life: James William Orton was born on 10th April 1912 in Middlesborough, to James William Orton and Elizabeth Orton nee Waterfield who had married the previous year. They do not…
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Cook William Ratcliffe
Our main D-Day 80 page [caption id="attachment_12280" align="alignleft" width="184"] Cook William Ratcliffe.[/caption] Early Life: William was one of three children born to Thomas and Merenia Ratcliffe (nee Astle). The youngest child and only boy, he was born in 1924 with two older sisters Eva Alice(born 1919) and Elsie May(born 1921). Educated at Holycroft Council School…
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Private Fred Pickles
Our main D-Day 80 page Early Life: Fred was born on the 15th April 1920 in Keighley to Fred and Mary Ann Pickles (née Greenwood) and appears to be their only child. Fred's father was a plasterer by trade and in the 1921 census the family are living at 17 Ash Street, Keighley with his…
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Private George Henry Frankland
Our main D-Day 80 page [caption id="attachment_12227" align="alignleft" width="221"] Private George Henry Frankland[/caption] Early life: George Henry Frankland was born during the second quarter of 1919 in Keighley to John Edward and Annie Elizabeth Frankland, nee Manning. He was the oldest of at least six children. His siblings were Priscilla (1925), Agnes (1926), Harry (1929),…
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Trooper John Henry Hird
Our main D-Day 80 page Early life: John Henry Hird was born in Keighley on 16th January 1923, he was the only son of John Christopher Hird, a building contractor and Elizabeth Hird nee Wright. He had two older sisters, Nancy Elizabeth (born 1913) and Ruth Edmondson (born 1919). The family lived at 99 Highfield…
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