Second Lieutenant Wilfred H Speke

Wilfred Henry Speke was the son of Henry and Lilian Speke, of Lee Green, London. He enlisted in the Royal Armoured Corps, volunteered for airborne forces and was granted a commission.

Second Lieutenant Speke successfully completed his parachute training at RAF Ringway on course number 70 from 26 June to 9 July 1943. His course report stated ‘very good confident type of NCO’. He was posted to command 4 Platoon, B Company, 11th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, and took part in Operation Market Garden (Arnhem).

2nd Lt Speke was killed in action by a mortar bomb on 21 September 1944, aged 30, in the area of the Old Church, Oosterbeek, and is commemorated on the Groesbeek Memorial to the missing.

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