Lieutenant Frederick W Crawford

Lieutenant Frederick William Crawford was the son of Frederick William and Elizabeth Ramsey Crawford, and husband of Kathleen Ellen Crawford, of Bournemouth, Hampshire.

He was granted an emergency commission with the Royal Corps of Signals on 16 March 1943 and later volunteered for airborne forces.

Lt Crawford qualified as a military parachutist on course 138, which ran at RAF Ringway from 16 to 28 October 1944.

He subsequently served with 6th Airborne Divisional Signals and it seems likely that he deployed with the division to the Ardennes during the winter of 1944-45

For Operation Varsity, the Rhine crossing into Germany, he served as the Officer Commanding K Section, which maintained signal communications for the 5th Parachute Brigade.

Lt Crawford emplaned at 07.45 hrs on 24 March 1945, landing just to the west of Hamminkeln. His signal section lost a considerable amount of its equipment on or soon after landing due to enemy action and Lieutenant Crawford was killed by shell fire at the rendezvous point around 10:50 hours..

Lieutenant Crawford died on 24 March 1945, aged 24 years old, and is now buried at Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Kleve in Germany.

Headstone photograph courtesy of Bob Hilton.