More Stories in the Courier

On 15th May, the Warwick Courier devoted a full page to some of the stories from the war memorial as they reported on the various local events commemorating the 75th anniversary of VE-Day the week before, including the launch of Unlocking Warwick’s appeal for photos and information about The Warwick Fallen from WW2.

The stories featured in the newspaper included the Howlett family who kept the Warwick Tavern in Compton Street, now the Old Fourpenny Shop. Tragically three of their four sons died during the Second World War.

There were pictures of Roland Hodgkisson who was a barber working in his father’s shop at 27 Emscote Road. He joined the Parachute Regiment and served as the company barber during training. His niece wrote to say, “He was 26 years old when he was killed in North Africa. It was his first parachute jump; the Germans were waiting for them and shot them down as they jumped.”

The newspaper also printed the wedding photograph of James O’Connell who survived the evacuation from Dunkirk, was married in 1942, but died during the allied invasion of Italy two years later.

Every name on the war memorial has a human story behind it. We hope to get pictures of all the Warwick men who gave their lives in WW2 and already local people are looking into their photo albums and emailing pictures to info@warwickwarmemorial.org.uk