Ronald Royston
PRIVATE RONALD ROYSTON
d. 24th April 1944, aged 26
Ronald was born at Linthwaite on 1st October 1917, the eldest of four children parents Herbert Royston and Mary Cruddas.
In 1921 the family has moved slightly closer to Huddersfield and is living in Milnsbridge, Ronald is the eldest child, he has a younger brother Jack and a sister Elsie. Brother Kenneth and sister Mary followed.
By 1939 the family was living at 29-33 Chapel Street in Luddenden and Ronald was working as a weaver.
Ronald joined the 5th Seaforth Highlanders but we are not sure of the date as the WW2 service records have not been released yet.
But we know that Compulsory Conscription was introduced in September 1939 for all men aged between 18 to 41. Ronald would have been 21 at the time, so he would almost definitely have been conscripted early in the war.
In which case he saw action with the 5th Seaforth Highlanders in North Africa (including El Alamein in October/November 1942 and the Battle of Wadi Akarit in April 1943) and later in 1943, he would have been fighting in Sicily, both campaigns under the control of Field Marshall Montgomery.
After the surrender of Italy on 3rd September 1943, the Battalion returned to the UK (in October) for training in preparation for the Normandy landings.
They were initially billeted at Gorhambury Park in Herfordshire and then moved to East Anglia in March 1944.
Ronald was accidentally killed whilst on the second day of a two day training exercise in the UK on 24th April just a few weeks before the Battalion embarked for Normandy (The Regiment landed on Juno Beach near Ornemouth as the second wave of troops on the afternoon of D Day).
His body was returned to the family and he is buried here in the village Cemetery.
References
1921 Census, RG15/495/9/16/53
1939 England and Wales Voters Register. Halifax CB/496/1/KEAD/schedule 41