Corporal Arthur J W Elsey

Corporal Arthur James William Elsey was the son of Edwin and Elsey, and husband of Dorothy Clara Elsey, of Takeley, Essex.

He was enlisted into the Royal Armoured Corps and subsequently served with the Airborne Light Tank Squadron RAC. The unit was expanded and redesignated as the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaisance Regiment (6AARR) in January 1944. He was assigned to Headquarters Squadron.

He took part in Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944 and fought in the campaign to hold the bridgehead onto mainland Europe which followed.

Cpl Elsey was at the Divisional Rest Camp in Ouistreham on 10 August 1944, when an enemy aircraft was shot down and crashed on the building he was in at around 22.45 hours. He and Tpr Hunt MM were killed.

Corporal Elsey died aged 25 years old, and is now buried at Ranville War Cemetery, Normandy.

Headstone photograph courtesy of Bob Hilton.