William Charles Barnes, husband of Lily Barnes, of Bootle, Lancashire, enlisted in the King’s Regiment (Liverpool) and then volunteered for the airborne forces.
Private Barnes was posted to S Company 1st Battalion, the Border Regiment (Airborne) and took part in Operation Market Garden.
He is known to have been killed in the afternoon of 21 September 1944, when a mixed force of Border Regiment soldiers was ordered to regain the lost B-Company positions at the Westerbouwing. At about a mile from the target, whilst advancing through a wood near 1st Airlanding Brigade HQ Pte Barnes was shot, and fell in the main pathway. The men had to push forward, leaving him behind.
Pte Barnes was Killed in Action on 21 September 1944, aged 26.
Pte Barnes has no known grave and is commemorated on the Groesbeek Memorial to the Missing at the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, near Arnhem.
By Rod Gibson
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