Name
Ernest Pateman
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
23/10/1943
28
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
5954612
The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment)
4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ATHENS MEMORIAL
Face 5.
Greece
Headstone Inscription
NA
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St. John's War Church Memorial, Hitchin, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
He was born in Hertfordshire and was resident in the county when he enlisted His Service Number was 5954612 and he died at sea whilst serving with the 4th Battalion. Units of the Regiment landed on the islands of Cos, Samos and Leros in the Dodecanese in September 1943 to take advantage of the Italian capitulation. They were severely attacked by German forces towards the end of October 1943 and were compelled to withdraw from the islands. He was probably mortally injured during the withdrawal. He died Between 23 October 1943 and 24 October 1943 and was buried at sea.
He has no known grave but is remembered on Face 5 of the Athens Memorial to the Missing in Greece.
His parents bad lived in Thorpe's Yard between ‘The Half Moon’ and Taylor's Hill at the end of Queen St. in Hitchin and during the Second World War they moved to the Westmill Estate.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Paul Johnson - local historian, Mrs P. Fenn, ‘The Second Great War’ by J. Hammerton
