Name
Charles Talbot Orton
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
28/05/1940
29
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Captain
52683
Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
DOZINGHEM MILITARY CEMETERY
XVII. A. 30.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
BELOVED HUSBAND OF MARGOT AND YOUNGER SON OF MAJ. GEN. SIR ERNEST F. ORTON AND OF ALICE HIS WIFE. WOUNDED AT KEMMEL 28.5.1940 AND DIED AT KROMBEKE, BELGIUM. "LIFE IS ETERNAL, LOVE IS IMMORTAL"
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Hitchin memorials
Biography
He was born in Surrey and was resident there at the time he enlisted. His Service Number was 52683.
From his place of burial it seems that he was with either the l/7th or the 8th Battalion of the Warwicks. They were both part of the 143rd Brigade that bad been sent from the 48th Division to strengthen the 5th Division. They arrived on the 26th May and were placed between Comines and Ypres and later in the day closed up immediately north of Comines. They were subjected to violent German attacks and by the 28th May withdrew to the River Yser via Poperinghe en route to the Dunkirk perimeter. Captain Orton was wounded at Kemmel and taken northwest through Poperinghe to Krombeke near Proven where he died.
He was buried in Plot 17, Row A, Grave 30 in Dozinghem Military Cemetery in Belgium. This cemetery had been originally developed to serve local Casualty Clearing Stations during the Great War. A private inscription on the headstone reads ‘‘Beloved husband of Margot and younger son of Maj. Gen. Sir Ernest F. Orton and of Alice his wife wounded at Kemmel 28th May 1940 and died at Krombeke Belgium. "Life is eternal., love is immortal".
He was the son of Major-General Sir Ernest Frederick Orton, K.C.I.E.,C.B. and of Lady Orton (nee Mickleburgh) of Guildford, Surrey and the husband of Margaret Stewart (Margot) Orton (nee Rigg) of Hitchin.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, ‘War in France & Flanders 1939-40’ by L.F. Ellis
