Private Walter J Callis

Walter Joseph Callis enlisted into the General Service Corps and was later posted to the East Surrey Regiment.

Private Callis volunteered for airborne forces and qualified as a military parachutist on course 123 which ran at RAF Ringway from 3 to 17 July 1944. The instructors’ report states: ‘Pte Callis Above average. Morale good. Discipline good.’

He was initially posted to No2 Airborne forces holding unit at Clay Cross near Chesterfield, before being posted to The 8th (Midland) Parachute Battalion Reserve Company at Tilshead, Salisbury Plain to await the battalion’s return from Normandy.

Pte Callis served in the Ardennes (The Battle of the Bulge), on the Operation Varsity (The Rhine Crossing) and in Palestine.

He was posted to 1st Battalion at Furness Barracks at Lubeck in Germany and demobbed in November 1949.