John Charles Troughton

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Corporal of Horse, John Charles Troughton

305392, Royal Horse Guards, 1st Household Cavalry Regiment

John Charles Troughton was born in the Doncaster area in summer 1916, the son of William Troughton and Lillian K. Cox who married in the same area in late 1913. The couple had three children, Doris, born late 1914, John Charles, and Jenny, born early 1920.

He married Freda Beaumont, a 32 year old spinster of Ossett, on the 4th November 1944 at St. Peter’s Church, Horbury. John Charles Troughton, the son of William Troughton, a deep sea diver, was a 28 year-old bachelor serving in the Forces and living in Horbury at the time of his marriage.

The 1st Household Cavalry Regiment saw action at the First Battle of El Alamein in July 1942 and the Second Battle of El Alamein in October 1942 before moving to Syria to patrol the Turko-Syrian border. The 1st Household Cavalry Regiment landed in Italy in April 1944 and then, after a break in the UK between October 1944 and March 1945, took part in the North West Europe Campaign.

The North-West Europe Campaign of 1944–1945, was fought by the British Second Army and First Canadian Army as elements of the British 21st Army Group. The campaign started with the landings in Normandy and ended on the 4th May 1945 with Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery taking the German military surrender of all German forces in the Netherlands, north west Germany and Denmark on Lüneburg Heath, (situated between the cities of Hamburg, Hanover and Bremen). As with the first campaign the British Commonwealth forces were on the northern flank of the Western Front.

The UK Army Roll of Honour 1939-1945 records that he enlisted and joined the Household Cavalry, Royal Horse Guards (The Blues) and was allotted service number 305392. He was serving with the Horse Guards as Corporal of Horse at the date of his death in Germany on the 3rd May 1945.

Corporal of Horse, John Charles Troughton, aged 28 years, husband of Freda Troughton, of Ossett, died of wounds incurred during action on the 3rd May 1945 and is buried at Plot 15.D.12. at Becklingen War Cemetery, Soltau, Heidekreis, Lower Saxony, Germany.

References:

1. Commonwealth War Graves Commission web site