South Oxford Poppy Trail to remember 42 men who died in the Second World War

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South Oxford Poppy Trail to remember 42 men who died in the Second World War

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South Oxford families are committed to preserving the memories of local war heroes.

Volunteers spent many months gathering photographs and compiling biographies of people who died during the Second World War, and the resulting project will include a Poppy Trail around the Abingdon Road area of the city.

The commemorations concern 42 servicemen from Grandpont, New Hinksey and Cold Arbour who died while serving their country.

Their names appear on war memorials in St Matthew’s, St John’s and St Luke’s churches, as well as at sites across Oxford.

Volunteers researched each man’s background, life in Oxford and death during the conflict.

From 1 to 30 November, posters displayed outside former homes will present details about the servicemen.

Visitors can follow every address on the trail or stop to read individual displays.

Leaflets being distributed in South Oxford contain a map, further information and the complete list of addresses.

Photographs depict Eric Bowles, Les Shepperd, Herbert Hacksley, Reg Collins, Ken Ayres with Gladys, John English, Deryck Drew, Kenneth Cole, Eddie Buttrum-Gardiner and Ron Williams.

Cole, who was among the people featured in Memory Lane the previous year, grew up in Marlborough Road and worked as a postman before serving with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

He participated in the Dunkirk evacuation but was subsequently captured and died aged 24 in a prisoner-of-war camp in Poland.

Buttrum-Gardiner, aged 23 and living in Weirs Lane, served in the seven-member crew of a Lancaster bomber.

On New Year’s Day 1945, the aircraft departed on a successful raid against railway yards at Vohwinkel in western Germany.

During the return journey, flak from an American anti-aircraft battery struck it twice over Belgium.

The bomber caught fire and crashed, killing six members of the crew, including Buttrum-Gardiner.

The memorial project began in the previous year to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

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