1st Airlanding Light Regiment Royal Artillery
1st Airlanding Light Regiment went into to battle with 372 men, 39 were killed, 9 of them are missing since.
Name: LAKIN, George Riley
Rank: Gunner
Age: 29
No. 14398944
Unit: F Troop, 3rd Battery
Missing since:21-09-1944
Next of Kin: Son of George and Clara Lakin, of Shepshed, Leicestershire.
Groesbeek Panel: 2
KIA Information: Known to have died of his wounds,and brought to Kate Ter Horst house, were his body was left
outside.
Name: SIME, Thomas
Rank: Gunner
Age: 34
No. 1084419
Unit: B Troop, 1st Battery
Missing since:22-09-1944
Next of Kin: Edinburgh.
Groesbeek Panel: 2
KIA Information: Known to have been killed by mortar fire on 20/21-09-1944 in D Troop position.
(See map below E7)
Name: DOVE, William Scott
Rank: Bombardier
Age: 30
No. 1084427
Unit: 3rd Battery
Missing since:24/25-09-1944
Next of Kin: Son of George and Janet Dove, of Blairgowrie, Perthshire.
Groesbeek Panel: 2
KIA Information: Known to have been wounded and brought to a RAP, where he was killed by mortar fire.
Name: NORMAN-WALKER, Arthur Fairfax
Rank: Major
Age: 32
No. 53633
Unit: 1st Battery Commander
Missing since:22-09-1944
Next of Kin: Son of Colonel J.N. Walker, of Streatley, Berkshire.
Groesbeek Panel: 1
KIA Information: Known to have been killed by enemy shell fire at 1st Airlanding Brigade HQ at the Hemelsche Berg.
(See map below D5)
Name: MUIR, James
Rank: Gunner
Age: 31
No. 1148553
Unit: D Troop, 2nd Battery
Missing since:23-09-1944
Next of Kin: Husband of Helen Muir, of Cathcart, Glasgow.
Son of William and Margaret Muir.
Groesbeek Panel: 2
KIA Information: Known to have been killed in D Troop position.
(See map below E6)
Name: KNIGHT, Maurice
Rank: Bombardier
Age: 21
No. 868123
Unit: E Troop, 3rd Battery
Missing since:25-09-1944
Next of Kin: Husband of E.J. Knight, of Mile End, Essex.
Groesbeek Panel: 2
KIA Information: Known to have been killed/drowned during the night of the withdrawal.
Name: PATCHETT, Henry Joseph
Rank: Gunner
Age: 21
No. 14251974
Unit: D. Troop 2nd Battery
Missing since:22-09-1944
Next of Kin: Son of Harry and Kathleen Patchett, of Grimsby, Lincolnshire.
Groesbeek Panel: 2
KIA Information: Known to have been killed by a tank near the Old Church on Benedendorpsweg.
Name: TAYLOR , Percy Albert "Buck"
Rank: Captain
Age: 31
No. 265315
Unit: D Troop Commander
Missing since:24-09-1944
Next of Kin: Husband of Nancy Taylor, of Wrentham, Suffolk.
Son of C.H and Beatrice Annie Taylor.
Groesbeek Panel: 1
KIA Information:When the D Troop had come under heavy sniper fire, Captain Taylor got a jeep and went up to get the wounded men out. He himself was wounded but when he went back to help more and whilst he was putting Sergeant Fletcher in his jeep, he was hit again. He was brought to the Dennenoord house which was used by the 1st Battalion, Border Regiment as a Regimental Aid Post, where he died of his wounds. His body went missing after the battle.
However he was buried as an unknown officer at Arnhem/Oosterbeek Cemetery in grave 6.A.5.
I forwarded his case to the Commonwealth War Grave Commission and in September 2009, I got this answer: it has not been possible, due to conflicting
dental information, to agree, ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’, the minimum requirement of the Department, that this is the resting place of the late Captain Taylor.
A typical DNA case I would say, as dental records, cannot always be 100% reliable, especially after so many years. Who knows what happened between the last record and the time a soldier body is found, his body had been in the ground for a year and a half and was obviously badly decomposed. But I am not an expert on that, this would be a case for DNA research.
Name: ALDRED, Percy Newton
Rank: Gunner
Age: 24
No. 325559
Unit: A Troop 1st Battery
Missing since:26-09-1944
Next of Kin: Son of Percy William and Gertrude Aldred, of Sale, Cheshire
Groesbeek Panel: 2
KIA Information: Known to have been badly wounded ,taken by his Troop
Commander to the riverbank on the night of evacuation, but missing since.
