Name
Gerald E (Gerry) Roberts
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
26/07/1943
34
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Corporal
2322740
Royal Corps of Signals
2nd A.A. Bde. Sigs.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CASSINO MEMORIAL
Panel 3.
Italy
Headstone Inscription
NA
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Boys’ Grammar School Memorial (WW2), Letchworth Town Memorial
Biography
He was born on the 30th July 1908 in India and prior to attending the Hitchin Grammar School from 1923-1926 he was at the Lawrence Royal Military School in Sanawor in the Simla Hills of India.
He seems to have been in the School House known as Branch Line and he was good at swimming, hockey and cricket.
When he left school he joined the Post Office, serving in Hitchin and Letchworth. A popular man, he won the Post Office South Midland District Tennis Cup and was a prominent sportsman in tennis, football and cricket. He was an overseer at Hitchin Post Office at the time that he was called up.
His Service Number was 2322740 and he was a resident of Bedford when he enlisted. His death coincides with the battles in Sicily when the British were striving to advance along the east coast in the vicinity of Catania as part of Operation ‘Husky’.
He has no known grave and is remembered on the Cassino Memorial to the Missing in Italy.
His wife's maiden name was Gray and they had two young children. Their home was at 23, Eldefield, Letchworth. His father had been an Indian Army Warrant Officer.
A photograph of him appears in the Citizen Newspaper dated 20th August 1943. He also had a brother Edward who served in India and who also had been on the staff of the Post Office.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Hitchin Grammar School Chronicle,
Hitchin Grammar School Registers, Paul Johnson - local historian, ‘Images of War’ by Marshall Cavendish & I.W.M., Citizen Newspaper dated 13th & 20th Aug 1943
