Ronald Teece

This story and photos are shared by the Trust with kind permission from George Teece, nephew of Ronald Teece

My father, George was one of eight brothers and one sister, Eileen, living in Finsbury Park, North London. The brothers were Arthur, Charlie, Frank, George, Reginald, Ronald, John, Cecil and they all fought in World War Two but two of them, Ronald and Cecil, lost their lives.

The Teece family

My father, George and his brother, Arthur were in Italy having previously been in North Africa, not quite Desert Rats but pretty close having been there eighteen mouths, when the D-Day campaign started.

On the 6th June 1944, five of the brothers Reginald, Frank, Charlie, John and Ronald where on this campaign but neither knew of each other being there.

Reg was the youngest and got as far as Arnhem. He drove a heavy supply lorry. There were minefields everywhere and sappers clearing the mines to make way for the lorry. He was  second in line to cross the field. The Colonel gave the all clear to cross. The lorry in front travelled a short distance along the field but it struck an undiscovered mine, blew up and caught fire. Reg's lorry caught the full impact of the blast and the driver in front died instantly.

Reg was in hospital in Holland till the end of the war, then moved back to a hospital in Ascot, England. He then transferred to a hospital near St Albans and my dad and the others would got to see him. He never walk properly again and refused to use a cane. He was discharged late 1947.

Ronald Teece was serving in the 5th Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders but was killed on the 16th August 1944, aged 22, near Caen. We have been to Bayeux to his grave about once a year and to the Memorial. What a great place.

Cecil was on Crete. When the Germans invaded, as many of the British troops as possible were evacuated and sent to Singapore. At the time my grandparents were pleased to hear had left Crete. But he became a Prisoner of War (PoW) to the Japanese having been captured when Singapore fell. Had he been one of those who stayed on Crete he might've lived to a reasonable age - the Gemans weren’t as brutal to PoWs as the Japanese.

Cecil died of malnutrition, dysentery, typhoid and no doubt a series of beatings, probably he was to ill to work. He died two days after the Japanese surrender. His grave is in Jakarta cemetery there the headstones are in black Marble.

Well all of the above is what I had been told by my cousins and my sister, who is two years older than me, as most of the brothers didn't talk about the war. I would ask my dad and he would do something else. I have a photo of my dad in a football team in Italy.

George Teece, third from the left, bottom row, with the winning football team

My sister said the story goes that they played a team from Europe in the Olympic stadium in Rome (can’t remember the dates and the team they played). England won and the team photo is them holding the trophy - a Cauliflower was the prize!