WILKIE, JOHN ERNEST
Rank:
Service No:
Date of Death:
Age:
Regiment/Service:
Grave Reference:
Text on stone:
Corporal
5953322
25/09/1944
27
The Royal Welch Fusiliers 6th Bn.
I. D. 18.
Beloved husband of Jeanie.
“He shall grow not old as we that are left grow old”
Additional information:
Husband of Jeanie Wilkie, of Bradford, Yorkshire.
Killed during the battles around the village of Reusel and initially buried there.
From the service records of John Ernest Wilkie, the following account can be reconstructed.
John Ernest Wilkie was born on 29 November 1916 in Gaton, Lancashire. In civilian life he worked as a printer’s assistant. He enlisted in the British Army on 16 March 1940 and joined the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment. On 22 August 1944 he was transferred to the Royal Welch Fusiliers.
He married Jeannie Clayton on 10 October 1941 in Bradford, Yorkshire. The couple had no children.
John Ernest Wilkie embarked for service in North West Europe on 20 August 1944.
According to his service records, he was 5 feet 4⅛ inches tall, with brown hair and blue eyes.
John Ernest Wilkie was killed in action on 25 September 1944.
