The seven graves

From faraway lands to us they came
Joyful, jocular, bouncy and bright
To fight the fangs of Prussia’s might


 From the land of bards of crowning fame
They heaved chants to maim the demon
and wrest from it our newfound freedom


To the blessed souls of these brave lads slain:
Play again the sweet harp of a land so pure
Where murmuring brooks forever endure


To whisper your songs of freedom 

(Mr. Jan Lavrijsen, September 2019)

Frederick was born on 4 January 1911 son of Robert Murdock (1881) and Margaret Patterson (1883). Robert and Margaret Murdock had seven children, five of whom died in infancy. 

Frederick Murdock attested to join the army on 28 July 1928 and following a medical examination on the 31 July 1928, he enlisted with TheRoyal Ulster Rifles on 1 August 1928. He was aged 18 at the time and, up to that point, had been working as a ‘Machine Man’. He named his father, Robert Murdock, as his next of kin and gave his home address as 56 Foyle Street Belfast. He initially signed up for twelve years, the first seven with the Colours and the remaining five with the Army Reserve. On the day that Frederick joined the army, he was 5’6’’ tall and weighed 127 lbs, just over 9 stone. He was described as having a fresh complexion, grey eyes and dark brown hair. The only distinguishing mark that he identified was a scar on the back of his head. 

It is not stated on his army record where he served between 1928 and 1935, but it does state that he was in the 2nd. Bn. The Royal Ulster Rifles and was in Poona on 24 March 1931. The 2nd. Bn. The Royal Ulster Rifles were in Poona from 1927 and in 1930 they moved to Sholapur because of civil unrest. In spring 1931, the 2nd. Bn. The Royal Ulster Rifles moved to Madras before moving on to Khartoum in 1932. In January 1933, the 2nd. Bn. The Royal Ulster Rifles was devided into two, with half heading back to the United Kingdom and the remaining half joining the 1st. Bn. The Royal Ulster Rifles in Jerusalem. It is known within the family that Frederick was in the half that went to Jerusalem, where he remained for two years until he completed his seven year tour of duty. On 11 December 1935, Frederick transferred to Section B of the Army Reserve, moving to Section A on 2 December 1936. On 21 December 1936, Frederick married Violet Young, a weaver and the daughter of William Young from 11 Beresford Street, in St. Mary’s Church on the Crumlin Road in Belfast. They were married in the presence of the bride’s brother-in-law, John Orr, and the groom’s aunt, Mary Murdock. Over the next four years, Frederick and Violet were to have three sons: James (born 1938); Frederick junior (born 1939) and William (born 1940). 

On 18 January 1938, Frederick re-enlisted in the army, this time with The Welch Regiment. Between then and April 1939, Frederick was on Home Assignment before being posted to Palestine between April and June 1939. Between June 1939 and August 1940, Frederick was again on Home Assignment before being posted on promotion to West Africa as part of TheRoyal West Africa Frontier Force, specifically the 5th. Bn. The Gold Coast Regiment. On 27 November 1943, Frederick returned home to the United Kingdom, where he remained until 26 August 1944. On 18 September 1944, he was transferred to the 6th. Bn. The Royal Welch Fusiliers who were at that time deployed in the theatre of North West Europe. At that time, the 6th. Bn. The Royal Welch Fusiliers were encamped 36 miles east of Antwerp, before the next push which led to the occupation of Postel and the assault on Reusel. 

The battle for Reusel was a particularly bitter one and it was not until 3 October 1944 that Reusel was finally occupied. During the battle, Frederick Murdock was killed on Monday 25 September 1944, aged 33, and was one of seven soldiers interred in the Churchyard of Reusel. (Text: Jim Murdock) 

William, son of Owen Traynor (1897-1959) and Mary Frances Traynor (1897-1966), was born on 13 July 1921 in Northwich, Cheshire. He had two sisters Violet Traynor (1919-1923), she died at the age of four, and Mary D. Traynor (1925-2017). 

“William’s will which was made when he was in the army and it was nice to see that he left all he owned to his sister Mary. This indicates how fond of her he must have been particularly having lost his sister Violet who was two years older than him. We can only presume his family meant a lot to him. 

William suffered from asthma but declined to give this information when he joined up for fear of being turned down. This demonstrates how patriotic and brave he must have been despite his poor health.” (Text: Paul Orsmond) 

William Owen Traynor was killed in action on Monday 25 September 1944, age 23. 

Samuel was born on 4 May 1913 in Walsall, son of Joseph Price and Georgina Ball. Samuel had four brothers and two sisters. 

He visited Croft Street School as a child and after leaving school he started working in a brick factory.

On 1 June 1936 he married Lilian Roberts (7 June 1915), the couple moved to Bloxwich, Staffordshire in the West Midlands. On 18 April 1939 they had a son, Morris John Price.
 
Samuel Morris Price was killed in action on Monday 25 September 1944, age 31. 

Donald was born September 5th. 1919 in Kingston, Surrey, England, son of Percy Charles Bicknell (1887-1986) and Lilian Ethel Maud Bartlett (1892-1964). Donald had four sisters and two brothers. Donald was a very talented pianist and was also a good mimic. He was very lively and sunny, very outgoing and great fun to be with. He was what would nowadays be called “laid-back” and was not a good soldier. His boots were never properly polished, his uniform was untidy and he was always being put “on fatigues” i.e. punished, for being late on parade. (“on fatigues” meant doing unpleasant jobs like peeling kilos of potatoes or cleaning out the latrines). His father was a boot and shoe-maker by trade and all his brothers went into that trade when they left school, including Donald. Don was late for work there too; he hated getting up in the morning, his mother would call up the stairs: “Don! Are you getting up or have I got to come up there and drag you out?” His mother adored him, he was the apple of her eye and something went out of her when the news came that he had been killed. She was never the same after that. (Text: Helena Bicknell Newton)

27 December 1943 Donald ‘Don’ married Enid Rothwell (1924-2013), the wedding took place in Stafford, Staffordshire, England. 

Donald and Enid in 1942 

Wednesday 27 September, half of ‘D’ company 4th. Bn. The Welch Regiment were still in the church at Reusel without wireless communication. They were involved in bloody close combat fights with Fallschirmjäger and Dutch SS-men. It was fought with grenades and hand weapons from pew to pew. During these fights Donald was killed, aged 25, he was shot through the head. 


After the war Enid married Walter James Webb Beckerleg on 19 October 1946 in Stafford. They got five childern. 

Enid, Walter, Pamela and Jean Beckerleg in 1952 

Walter was trained by the army to be a Marine Engineer, he was not stationed on the front line as he had hammer toes. He then became a driver for senior army officers, then volunteered to drive delivery lorries. This was during the blackout when road signs were removed and headlights were restricted. He also spent some time manning the anti-aircraft guns. Following the end of WW-II, one of Walter’s tasks was to bring army trucks back from the Isle of Wight to No. 16 Maintenance Unit RAF at Stafford, where he met Enid Rothwell in a local pub. (Text: Anthony Briggs Jr.) 

Vernon son of Stephen John (1881) and Sarah Thomas John (1881) was born on 26 June 1920 in Pen Y Graig, Wales. He had two sisters Lilian and Dorothy and one brother Ewart Stephen John. In the 1939 Register we read that Vernon at that time was an unemployed Wine Waiter. Later on he joined The Welch Regiment and Vernon landed 26 June 1944 on Sword Beach, Normandy. His brother Sgt. Ewart Stephen John was in the RAF, 295 squadron. He was shot down and killed whilst resupplying the Paras at Arnhem six days before Vernon was killed. On the Facebook group “The Welsh Tommies 39-45” I received following brief account about Vernon’s death. There I heard from Howard Davies, son of Emrys Davies who sadly passed away 2 February 2018 aged 92: 

“My father held Vernon James John in his arms as he bled to death after being shot in the throat by the sniper who was in the steeple of the church at Reusel. Vernon and my father were in a buddy position just outside the church when the sniper hit Vernon. My father told the story in the church at Reusel many years ago and described the battle that took place to remove the enemy forces from the church. It was fought with grenades and hand weapons from pew to pew, and they weren’t Germans they were Dutch SS who fought even harder than the German SS my father said. It was a tragic tale about poor Vernon, his brother was also killed in the war and his sister Lilian died in tragic circumstances, leaving both parents losing three children during the war period. We don’t know how easy we have it today. This is all from my fathers archives he kept, I’m happy to share it as he was actually there at the Battle of Reusel. I’m pleased to honour his memory and his efforts by sharing the truth of what happened with all so that all can see what actually happened. Dad will be looking down and smiling”. 

Ron Reynolds, 4th.Bn.The Welch Regiment said:

“…I feel confident that this is the grave of Lance Corporal John for it was not more than 200 yards from where he had been killed. On that day, Tuesday 26 September 1944. His identity discs and paybook had been removed from his body by my Platoon Sergeant Len Williams and handed over to the Company Commander Major Tranter. The intention was to bury him later. Unfortunately the enemy counter-attacked and after two days house to house fighting, we were forced to withdraw from Reusel. Lance Corporal John remained unburied”.

Herbert Hughes was born on 20 January 1916 in Wrexham, Denbighshire, North Wales. His father was Henry Hughes and his mother was Mary Jane Jones he had two elder brothers and one elder sister, Tom Hughes was born in 1902, Doris Hughes was born in 1904 and Henry Hughes was born in 1911. 

His younger sister Margaret Hughes was born in 1918 followed by his brother Walter Hughes in 1924 and finally his sister Olive Hughes who was born in 1927.

Herbert was employed as a groceries shop assistant in 1939 and in 1940 he married Edith Watkins also from Wrexham. They had no children from their short marriage which ended when Herbert was killed in action while serving with 6th. Bn. The Royal Welch Fusiliers in the rank of Lance Sergeant at Reusel in the Netherlands on Monday 25 September 1944. (Text: Denise Cooper) 

Herbert’s parents

Edward John Sheen son of Joseph Henry Sheen (1878) and Jennet Elizabeth Thomas Sheen (1882) was born on 31 December 1915 in Cardiff. On 25 December 1900, Joseph Henry Sheen married Jennet Elizabeth Thomas they had ten children, five of whom died in infancy. 

“Eddie Sheen was a likeable, ordinary lad who was one of a group of boys of many nationalities resident in Maria Street (Cardiff) in the 1920s. Novels, newspapers and reports of all kinds referred to this period in the history of Tiger Bay as a shocking time, with riots, prostitution, shootings, etc. If this was even half true, we must have lived a charmed life, and a life that we enjoyed to the hilt”. 

“At times we accepted a person or two from other streets, such as Angelina, Peel or Christina, into our gang, but not Nelson Street! They were our number one rivals. Included in the Nelson Street gang were Johnnie Erskine, Richard McCoy, Billy Waithe and Billy Robbins, to name just a few. We did not have such a star-lined opposition, but during the years between the ages of 7 and 14, when school was over, we had Eddie, what a man!” 

“Quiet, unobtrusive was Eddie Sheen until opposed, but one remembers the races he won, heights he climbed and the jumps he made, fourteen feet off canal wall with only thin dap’s on-nothing to it! And I remember, too, the quiet way he would move in if one of us was being bullied”.
 

“Outstanding in my memory, however, is his storytelling. The Saturday morning matinee at the Hippodrome (cinema) in Westgate Street was our weekly visit to the pictures. During the week we followed, at every opportunity on an unusually polished paving stone outside Scotts, with a silver of slate in his hand, Eddie could continue the story from the serial on the Saturday, with illustrations drawn on the paving stone. But whether the original hero was Jim Mix, Buck Jones or Hoot Gibson, in Eddie’s story they were all simply ‘Our man’. We were completely mesmerized by his never-ending tales”. 

“After leaving school and a short period as an upholsterer, Eddie joined The South Wales Borderers to become a Physical Instructor, an army boxing champion and then he went overseas to Palestine and elsewhere”. 

“Eddie was in North Africa when the war started, but realising how long he had been abroad, he was sent on home leave before the invasion of Sicily. For a man who had spent so many years abroad under the conditions that he had, at home Eddie became restless and volunteered The Welch Regiment for the Normandy landings. The rest, as they say, is history. What a boy, what a man, what a pal!” 

(memories of Joe Rodrigues, a close friend of Edward John Sheen who also lived in Maria Street, Cardiff) 

Edward John Sheen was killed in action on Wednesday 27 September 1944, age 28. 

Until May 1999 Edward was burried in a grave marked: “KNOWN UNTO GOD” at the cemetery in Reusel. The investigations of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission has resulted, following the introduction of the computer, that Edward was identified by the remnants of his identity discs. 

The Welch Regiment was able to track down Edward’s sister Lilian May and in keeping with her wishes the CWGC engraved her personal message on the headstone: 

 “Always in our thoughts-Rest In Peace”