Name
Ronald John Mead
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
15/02/1945
18
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
14734792
Hampshire Regiment
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
REICHSWALD FOREST WAR CEMETERY
57. D. 8.
Germany
Headstone Inscription
SAFE IN GOD'S KEEPING. "UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN"
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St. Saviour's Church Memorial, Hitchin, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
He was born in Hertfordshire and attended Wilshere Dacre School in Hitchin and later worked for the Hitchin Glove Factory. Before joining up he was in the Walsworth Home Guard. His Service Number was 14 734 792 and he was resident in Hertfordshire at the time he enlisted He was killed in action by machine-gun fire when his Company was involved in a major offensive in Northwest Europe.
He was serving in the 7th Battalion of the Regiment which was part of the l 30th Infantry Brigade of the 43rd Infantry Division of XXX Corps. At the time of his death, the Division was thrusting towards Goch twenty-five miles east of Wesel in the Rhineland.
He was buried in Plot 57, Row D, Grave 8 in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery in Germany. A private inscription on the stone reads "Safe in God's keeping. Until we meet again".
His parents were Alfred John and Winifred Mary (nee Cutler) Mead of 37, Sturgeon's Way, Walsworth.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Paul Johnson - local historian, ‘Orders of Battle 1939-45’ by H.F. Joslen, ‘Victory in the West’ by L.F. Ellis, Herts Pictorial dated 13th March 1945
