BLEWBURY LOCAL HISTORY  GROUP

5337274 Private Antony A T Pepall 4th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment

Died 30th May 1940 aged 23

Antony, the son of Alec Frank and Winifred, was always known as Joe. As a territorial, he went over to Belgium as part of the BEF. The 4th Royal Berks landed at Cherbourg and immediately made their way to the front in Belgium, passing through Lille, to form a defensive line on the Albert canal in the area of Zuydschoote & Lizerne. They were overrun by the advancing Germans on the 29th and lost many men as a result; Joe is listed as dying on the next day.


He is buried in a Belgian churchyard with 20 other soldiers (fourteen named and six unknown) who died the same day. He shares his resting place with men from Suffolk but none from Berkshire. The graveyard is just to the west of Bruges, directly on the route to Dunkirk where the British and French armies were heading.


THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Seven men are named on the memorials to the fallen for the 2nd World War with two CGWC headstones in Blewbury cemetery.

The names of the following men are recorded on both the Church and Chapel memorials as having died during the 1939-45 war:


Sydney John Aldridge

John Anthony Attwill

Timothy Francis Cobb

Alfred Evans

William Charles Higgs

James Winter Carmichael More

Antony A T Pepall