Buried locally in a War Grave.

[David Annis]

William Annis.
Private.
Gloucestershire Regiment. 8th Btn.
Date of Death.15/08/1940.
Service No. 5251470.
Commonwealth War Dead.
Pershore Cemetery.
I have not been able to find out what happened to William. I can only assume that he was wounded and was returned back to this country where he died from is wounds. Unless of course he was fatally wounded somehow in this country. Looking at the date, it is not far off the evacuation of Dunkirk, in May/June of 1940.
Is there anyway of finding out. I cannot find any reference in the Gloucestershire Reg site.
Cheers.
Dave.

[Jan1954]

Dave,

Do you have his death certificate? It may provide a few more clues.

July to Sep, 1940, Swindon, Vol 5a, page 60 (aged 23) - this looks like him.

Also, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission states:

During the Second World War, there was a Royal Air Force station at Pershore and most of the 64 burials in Pershore Cemetery from this period are of airmen, 41 of them Canadian. The majority of these graves are in a war graves plot.

[David Annis]

The information I have comes from the CWGC. Pershore Cemetery does hold the war graves of these Canadian airmen. There were two airfields just outside Pershore. Defford airfield and Tilesford. These were used extensively during the war. Many of these poor souls lost there lives trying to land or take off from these airfields.
I have not got the death certificate of William and I am assuming that he was in the army rather than the airforce. Would the Gloucesters have been detailed to an airfield ?
Cheers.
Dave.
Ps. If any Canadians are viewing this, the graves of these brave airmen are respected, maintained and kept in pristine condition in Pershore Cemetery. They are honoured every year.

[peter nicholl]

Hi David
I take it that Pershore is more or less the family home. If so, that may be why William is buried there. If the Swindon reference is correct, then the Death Cert may help with the Cause of Death and the where. There are/ were an awful lot of Army Camps in the area and it's not a million miles from Salisbury Plain.
Peter
PS There seems to have been a Burns Unit at what became Princess Alexandra Hospital, although it appears to have dealt mainly with aircrew.

[keith9351]

Try this site :- https://www.glosters.org.uk/research/

They have a forum and you could put your question to them.

Keith

[keith9351]

Just checked Regiments.org and it shows 8th Battalion [1939-1941] as Home Defence so he could have died in an accident or illness.

Keith

[David Annis]

Thank you all for taking the time to look for these records.
At the moment I cannot place where William is located in the family tree.
The founding father of the Annis tribe arrived in Pershore in about 1820. From then on we started to spread like wildfire throughout the town and infact Pershore still holds the world record for the most concentrated area of Annis's.
But I'm now you have me wondering about Williams age and the posibility that he was in the Home Guard. If this is my William James Annis from the first world war it would make him about 56yrs old and would fit in as being in the Home Guard.
Is this William the veteran and if so would he have been honoured by being put in the war grave section of the cemetary even though he was in the Home Guard ?
Cheers.
Dave.

[keith9351]

Hi David

I'm not sure if the 8th Battalion being on Home Defence would be anything to do with the Home Guard, but not a expert.

Sending for death cert. may not help. I have been researching a uncle of mine killed in 1940 and on the cert. cause of death shown "Due to war operations"

I also when through all the local papers and no mention of this death, although he was working on anti-invasion defences at the time, so may be this was censored. He was a regular solider but with a TA unit at the time.

Keith

[David Annis]

Now you have me guessing even more. I must have a google to see if the Home Defence was re-named to Home Guard or if it was a separate home force. I will have more time to search in the next couple of days as work is getting in the way at the moment.
Cheers
Dave

[BorderReiver]

My grandfather was also buried locally - in a War Grave.

He had been wounded at Ypres in WW1 and sent home in 1916 and "attached" to a local steelworks. He died in the 'Flu pandemic in 1918.

The reason he was buried in a War Grave was because he had signed on for four and a half years and was still officially in service.