D-Day warrior

Private Wilfred John Rawlins participated in the historic D-Day landings in Normandy in June 1944. He served with the second battalion of the East Yorkshire regiment, the unit tasked with capturing Sword Beach on the eastern side of the battlefront and driving inland.

The men were carried across from Portsmouth in Royal Navy ships overnight and then loaded onto landing craft for the assault on the beach. There, they met ferocious resistance from the moment they landed, with heavy artillery and machine gun fire pouring down on them, killing scores of men in the first few minutes.

Wilfred, a young man of only twenty-two years, made the ultimate sacrifice on the battle’s first or second day. His grave lies in the Hermanville War Cemetery.

His family background

Wilfred John Rawlins was born in North Wales on 29 April 1922. During the First World War, his father, Ernest William Rawlins, who came from Taunton, met and married Alice Maud Dexter, the daughter of a gamekeeper who, before his early death, had worked on estates in Cheshire and the Lake District before taking a position at Gwyrch Castle, near Rhyl.

After the war, Ernest and Alice remained in North Wales until at least 1927. They had two daughters and four sons, including Wilfred and his twin brother, Albert.

By September 1939, Wilfred lived with his parents and siblings at Hardington Marsh. His father was a disabled pensioner, and Wilfred and Albert were farmhands. Wilfred probably joined the army a year or so later.

Ernest died in 1940 and his wife in 1957. In 1950, Albert married Gladys Voizey.  He lived at Vale Farm until he passed away in 1981.