We have added a number of local men to our research who were involved in the Normandy Landings, also known as D-Day which occurred on 6th June 1944 and the fight which began on that day continued for a long time afterward until the war was eventually won. It was a huge turning point in the war.
Our main D-Day page
Private. Royal Army Ordnance Corps. Service number 4349034.
Early life:
Fred was born on 15th April 1920 and his birth was registered in Keighley. His parents were Fred Pickles of East Morton and Mary Ann Pickles née Greenwood of Oxenhope. They had been married in 1910 and were living at 42 Back Leeming in Oxenhope in the 1911 census. Fred (senior) was a journeyman plasterer.
In the 1921 census Fred was aged just one and living with his parents at 17, Ash Street in Keighley which was between Highfield Lane and Devonshire Park. His father was working as a plasterer for David Antrum of Catherine Street in Keighley who was also a plasterer.
By the time of the 1939 register Fred was aged 19 and an apprentice plasterer so he’d followed in his father’s footsteps.
The family had moved just one street away from their previous address and were living at 20, Well Street. Fred was their only child.
Fred married Winifred Elsom in Keighley during the third quarter of 1941. He would have been aged 21 at that time. Winifred was six months older than him and also aged 21 when they married. in the 1939 register Winifred was living with her family at 66, Belgrave Road in Keighley and was employed as a rover at a worsted mill.
Interestingly, Well Street and Belgrave Road are just a couple of minutes walk away from each other and both lead into Highfield Lane, so perhaps they initially met on the way into or out of town.
War service:
According to the newspapers, Fred joined the Army in 1940, so he would have been serving when they married. He was serving with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps when he went overseas during Operation Neptune and was part of the huge invasion force establishing a foothold in Europe at that time. He was killed in action on 7th June 1944, the day after D-Day. If Fred came ashore on Gold Beach near Arromanches, then he didn’t progress far, because Rye War Cemetery is just three and a half miles inland.
He was buried in Rhys Temporary Cemetery close to the date of his death. On 16th February 1945 his grave along with many others, was exhumed and reinterred at a new cemetery. Fred was reburied in grave number 2 of row H in plot VI at Ryes War Cemetery, Bazenville in Calvados, France.
This cemetery is not far inland from the beaches at Arromanches, where the 50th Division landed on 6 June. The first burials were made there just two days after the landings.
His family later had a private inscription added to his Commonwealth War Grave headstone which reads:
“THEY SHALL GROW NOT OLD AS WE THAT ARE LEFT GROW OLD”
“REST IN PEACE.”
The Keighley News, 1st July 1944:
LOCAL ROLL OF HONOUR
Mrs, Winnifred Pickles has received official news that her husband, Private Fred Pickles, R.A.O.C. has been killed in action in France. Private Pickles is the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Pickles, of 20, Well Street, Keighley. Aged 24. He has been in the Army four years, and before joining up was employed by Mr. Fred Davy, plasterer, Cross Hills. He played Rugby for Ingrow.
Post war:
Winifred died at the age of 82 in November 2001. Her death was registered in Keighley in the last quarter of the year.
Information sources:
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915
England & Wales Births 1837-2006.
1911 Census.
1921 Census Of England & Wales.
1939 Register.
England & Wales Marriages 1837-2005.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Keighley News archives at Keighley Library.
Keighley WW2 Scrapbook in Keighley Library.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007
