BALLS, LIONEL FRANK
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Date of Death:
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Text on stone:
Rank:
Service No:
Date of Death:
Age:
Regiment/Service:
Grave Reference:
Text on stone:
Signalman
6032153
17/09/1944
21
Royal Corps of Signals 21 Beach Sig. Sec.
II. A. 1.
Not a day do we forget you in our hearts you are always near
Additional Information:
Son of Albert and Ethel Balls, of Witham, Essex.
Lionel was born in Essex, U.K., in 1923.
Died in the opening battle of Market Garden, on the road toward Valkenswaard, when his communication car hit a mine. Three signalman were killed and are buried side by side at the Valkenswaard War Cemetery.
Original gravesite along the road from Belgium towards Valkenswaard.
From the service records of Lionel Frank Balls, the following account can be reconstructed.
Lionel Frank Balls was born on 22 July 1923 in Chelmsford, Essex. Before his military service he worked as a grocer’s assistant. He was described as being 5 feet 2½ inches tall, with grey-blue eyes and brown hair. He was unmarried.
He enlisted in the British Army on 16 April 1942 and initially joined the Essex Regiment. During his service he later transferred, on 1 August 1943, to the Royal Corps of Signals, reflecting a change in role and responsibilities within the army.
Following the Allied invasion of Normandy, Lionel was posted to North-West Europe, arriving on 2 June 1944, shortly before D-Day operations expanded inland.
Lionel Frank Balls was killed in action on 17 September 1944, during the intense fighting in North-West Europe in the autumn of that year.
He is remembered as a young soldier whose service took him from Essex to the front lines of the liberation of Western Europe, where he lost his life in the final year of the war.
Chelmsford Chronicle 29 september 1944
Chelmsford Chronicle 14 september 1945
Chelmsford Chronicle 13 september 1946
Chelmsford Chronicle 12 september 1947
