WILLIAM HAROLD ROBERT THORPE

William’s portrait and profile will be displayed at a V.J. Day exhibition, “Be Ye Men of Valour“, from Saturday, 9th August to Monday, 25th August (Bank Holiday) 2025, at St. Margaret’s Church, Ipswich, IP4 2BT.

William is remembered on the war memorial at the Town Hall, Ipswich.

Image from 7th March 1945, Evening Star newspaper.

Born: 1922, Ipswich.

Died: 6th June 1944; age: 22; KiA – D-Day.

Residence: 35, Tomline Road, Ipswich.

Employed: at Ipswich Corporation – Electric Supply Department.

Rank: Private; Service Number: 7344953.

Regiment: Royal Army Medical Corps, attached to the 8th Parachute Battalion (6th Airborne Division).

Grave Reference:

V.B.I.22. (collective grave)

Ranville War Cemetery,

Normandy,

France.

Relatives Notified & Address: Son of William & Mabel Thorpe; husband of Doreen Thorpe, of Wilmorton, Derby.

Father: William George E. Thorpe, born June 1899, New Chesterton, Cambridgeshire.

Mother: Mabel May Thorpe (nee Osborne), born August 1895, Otley, Suffolk.

Sister: Olive Ann Noel Thorpe, born December 1926, Ipswich.

In 1944, Derby, Derbyshire, William married Doreen Hobson, born 1924, Derby, Derbyshire.

In 1946, Doreen Thorpe married Cyril Higgins.