Reference
Z1420
Title
Material relating to the Second World War service of Alfred Thomas Rowe, Royal Engineers (1908-1964/5) of Toddington (father of the donor), gifted in October 2010
Date free text
1944-1945
Production date
From: 1944 To: 1945
Admin/biog history
Alfred Thomas Rowe was baptised at Toddington on 7 June 1908, a son of Harry (labourer) and Ann Maria Rowe. Alfred married May Smith (aged 29, spinster, of 10, Steppingley. Father: George Harry Smith, deceased) at Steppingley on 22 January 1938. He was then a 30-year-old bricklayer, living at 57, Luton Road, Toddington.
When the Second World War broke out Alfred Thomas Rowe enlisted in the Royal Engineers and wrote vivid account of the D Day landings and subsequent mine-clearing and bridge-building operations in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. The circumstantial evidence points to his unit being the 72nd Company Royal Engineers, as his account mentions a sapper called Blaber, who the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website confirms as killed with that unit on 12 June 1944. He was awarded the Defence Medal, the War Medal, the 1939/45 Star and the France and Germany Star for service during the War. [The medals were retained by the donor]
Alfred died in the July of either 1964 or 1965.
Level of description
fonds