My Uncle Syd was born on the 30th November 1923 at 2 Millbank Cottages Headcorn Kent. His parents were Fred and Ethel Aldridge. He had one brother, my father Ronald, and two sisters

He served in the local village Home Guard from November 1941 until September 1942 when he was called up aged 18.

He was first posted to the 9th Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment in Maidstone and received his small arms training at Shorncliffe Barracks Folkestone.

In February 1943, he was transferred to the 7th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry. From early 1944 the Somersets were based mainly in Sussex and were inspected along with other troops of the 43rd Wessex Division by Field Marshal Montgomery at Rye. By the 6th June they were encamped at Battle Abbey.

The regiment then travelled by train to Glyndebourne and then onto Newhaven where they boarded the SS Biarritz, a former channel ferry, finally setting sail for Normandy on the 19th of June. The troops waded ashore at Courseulles-Sur-Mer on the 23rd June after four days at sea.

The 43rd Wessex division advanced inland via Norrey and Verson to arrive at the valley of the Odon by early July 1944. On the 9th July the river Odon was crossed and the 7th Somersets occupied the shell scarred remains of Chateau de Fontaine Etoupefour and its farmbuildings.

However, they were now faced with dealing with some determined SS troops who had hidden themselves within the farm buildings and it took several days to winkle out the last snipers. The area was also subject to intense shell and mortar fire from the enemy positions nearby and the battalion suffered many losses including my uncle on the 10th July 1944.

The troops who fell here were initially buried near to the chateau. By 1946, most had been moved to the newly created St Manvieu Commonwealth War Graves cemetery and others nearby.

My late father gave me a copy of a translated letter from December 1946 sent to my grandparents from a local French person who tended to his grave where they planted flowers and offered help if the family was ever able to travel to France to see the grave.