HOOD, ALFRED GEORGE
Rank:
Service No:
Date of Death:
Age:
Regiment/Service:
Grave Reference:
Text on stone:
Rank:
Service No:
Date of Death:
Age:
Regiment/Service:
Grave Reference:
Text on stone:
Signalman
14224301
17/09/1944
21
Royal Corps of Signals
II. A. 2.
Everlasting memories of my darling son Alf re-united with his father in god´s keeping
God bless you both, mum
Additional Information:
Son of Samuel Willis Hood, and of Jessie Hood, of South Yardley, Birmingham.
Alfred was born July 14th, 1923. His father died in 1943 so the mother was in great grief.
Alfred Hood served with the Royal Corps of signals and was attached to the 2nd Battalion Devons. On the 17th of September 1944 his unit was part of an operation called “Market Garden”. The Devons were clearing the flanks for the Irish Guards during their race to reach Arnhem. Next to the road from Lommel, Belgium, toward Valkenswaard, the radio car which Alfred was driving struck a mine and Alfred was killed.
“Hello, my mother, Audrey Thompson, always spoke fondly of Alfred and regretted his untimely death. Just like so many others he was a lovely young man. She saw the devastating impact of his loss back at home in Birmingham as Alfred’s father had died just the year previously in 1943. His mother Jessie (my own mother’s Aunt) was left all alone as she only ever had the one child. However she did re-marry in the following years.”
From a letter of the army padre to the parents:
September 28 1944
171389 Rev RM Henderson C. F. 2nd Devons British Liberation Army
Dear Mrs Hood
I am the Padre of the Battalion to which your son was attached when he met his death on Sept 17th, although I didn’t know him through being new to the unit, I can tell you a little of his death.
He was killed when the vehicle he travelled in was blown up on Sept 17th after the beginning of the battle which began on the break-through into Holland.
His death was instant. I can assure you of that, because I was only a short distance away at the time, and was on the spot in a minute or two. He and the others concerned were all killed instantly , and therefore did not suffer.
I buried him in a nice little plot of ground just inside the Dutch frontier. The graves were all nicely tended, and all had crosses and flowers.
He played his part in the liberation of Holland – which is something you can be proud of!
Please accept my sincerest sympathy in your great loss. May God grant to you and his other loved ones, comfort and strength in your time of need.
Yours Very Sincerely
Robert M Henderson Padre
Original gravesite along the road from Belgium towards Valkenswaard.