Reginald Frederick Blackmore

Reginald Frederick Blackmore was born on the 15th of July 1918 in Shirley, a suburb of Southampton. The parents of Reginald Blackmore were William Blackmore (born 1891) and Letitia Vokes (born 1895). Reginald went to the Central School in Southampton. In 1939 Reginald joined the 11th Hussars (Prince Albert’s Own), called the Cherry Pickers. The 11th Hussars were already active in the Middle East in the 30’s, and were camped in Egypt in 1940. As a unit in the 7th Armoured Division, the regiment waged war with armoured cars against the Italians and Germans in North Africa. At one of the operations Reginald Blackmore was wounded. On the 20th of September, the 11th Hussars crossed over from Tripoli to Italy; Blackmore’s B-squadron landed in the neighbourhood of Salerno on the 23rd of September 1943. Until the end of December 1943 the 11th Hussars participated in battles in Italy. Subsequently, they leave the scene of battle north of Naples and sail for Great-Britain where they landed in Glasgow on the 4th of January 1944. Blackmore had volunteered for the battle in Europe. On June 11, 1944, the 11th Hussars left the marshalling area for the West India Docks in London, where they started loading a Liberty ship. They sailed for the beaches of Normandy, on June 16th the squadron was complete in France. From Normandy the allied troops pushed further into Europe. According to the War Diaries of the 11th Hussars the squadron of Blackmore was concentrated in Udenhout, the Netherlands on October 27, 1944. Further from the War Diaries of October 28, 1944: “Tpr. Blackmore, the squadron dispatch rider, was killed today by a stray shell, that landed in the Tac Sqn Hq at 1738 hours. This was pure bad luck. Tpr Blackmore was an old 11th Hussars hand in Lybia and at one time was lost for 5 days in the desert with SSM Emery”.Information: Frank de Hommel wrote a book called “Three British soldiers, buried in the churchyard behind the St-Lambertus church in Udenhout”. ISBN 978-90-78933-39-7. Erfgoedcentrum ‘t Schoor Udenhout-Biezenmortel www.schoorudenhout.nl Sluiten