Notes for Charles James Brown: Trooper in the King's first Tragoon guards
Effects Form 100 B-2 Nc. D/84618 (Effects) CERTIFIED that having regard to such information as is available concerning no. 6200146 Trooper Charles James Brown Royal Armoured Corps who was officially reported missing on the tenth day of May 1942 It has been presumed by the War Office that he was killed in action on the tenth day of May 1942 at sea while serving with the Middle East Expeditionary Force.
Given at the WAR OFFICE this 25th day of September 1942
Casualty Details Name: BROWN, CHARLES JAMES Initials: C J Nationality: United Kingdom Rank: Trooper Regiment/Service: Royal Armoured Corps Unit Text: 1st King's Dragoon Guards Age: 30 Date of Death: 10/05/1942 Service No: 6200146 Additional information: Husband of Primrose Anne Brown, of South Benfleet, Essex. Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead Grave/Memorial Reference: Column 16. Memorial: ALAMEIN MEMORIAL
Cemetery Details Cemetery: ALAMEIN MEMORIAL Country: Egypt Locality: unspecified Visiting Information: The cemetery is kept open during daylight hours and is manned by our gardeners Saturday to Thursday 07.30 - 14.30. Wheelchair access to this site with some difficulty. For further information regarding wheelchair access, please contact our Enquiries Section on telephone number 01628 507200. Location Information: The Alamein Memorial forms the entrance to the El Alamein War Cemetery. Alamein is a village, bypassed by the main coast road, approximately 130 kilometres west of Alexandria on the road to Mersa Matruh. The first Commission road direction sign is located just beyond the Alamein police checkpoint and all cemetery visitors should turn off from the main road onto the parallel old coast road. The cemetery lies off the road beyond the ridge, and road direction signs are in place approximately 25 metres before the low metal gates and stone wing walls which are situated centrally at the road edge at the head of the access path into the cemetery. The Cross of Sacrifice feature may be seen from the road. Historical Information: The campaign in the Western Desert was fought between the Commonwealth forces (with, later, the addition of two brigades of Free French and one each of Polish and Greek troops) all based in Egypt, and the Axis forces (German and Italian) based in Libya. The battlefield, across which the fighting surged back and forth between 1940 and 1942, was the 1,000 kilometres of desert between Alexandria in Egypt and Benghazi in Libya. It was a campaign of manoeuvre and movement, the objectives being the control of the Mediterranean, the link with the east through the Suez Canal, the Middle East oil supplies and the supply route to Russia through Persia. The ALAMEIN MEMORIAL forms the entrance to Alamein War Cemetery. The Land Forces panels commemorate more than 8,500 soldiers of the Commonwealth who died in the campaigns in Egypt and Libya, and in the operations of the Eighth Army in Tunisia up to 19 February 1943, who have no known grave. It also commemorates those who served and died in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Persia. The Air Forces panels commemorate more than 3,000 airmen of the Commonwealth who died in the campaigns in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Greece, Crete and the Aegean, Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Somalilands, the Sudan, East Africa, Aden and Madagascar, who have no known grave. Those who served with the Rhodesian and South African Air Training Scheme and have no known grave are also commemorated here. EL ALAMEIN WAR CEMETERY contains the graves of men who died at all stages of the Western Desert campaigns, brought in from a wide area, but especially those who died in the Battle of El Alamein at the end of October 1942 and in the period immediately before that. The cemetery now contains 7,239 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, of which 814 are unidentified. There are also 102 war graves of other nationalities. The ALAMEIN CREMATION MEMORIAL, which stands in the south-eastern part of El Alamein War Cemetery, commemorates more than 600 men whose remains were cremated in Egypt and Libya during the war, in accordance with their faith. No. of Identified Casualties: 11869
ELALAMEIN AND THE WAR IN THE WESTERN DESERT A view of El Alamein War Cemetery from the Alamein Memorial THE DESERT CAMPAIGN The campaign in the Western Desert was fought between the Commonwealth Forces (with, later on, the addition of two brigades of Free French and one each of Polish and Greek troops) all based in Egypt, and the Axis Forces (German and Italian) based in Libya. The battlefield, across which the struggle surged back and forth between 1940 and 1942, was the 1.000 kilometres of desert between Alexandria in Egypt and Benghazi in Cyrenaica. It was a war of manoeuvre and lengthy movement in which, until the final phase. each advance by either side generated the same problems of overextended lines of supply and reinforcement. For both sides the objectives were not the acquisition of' desert sand but the control of the Mediterranean, the link with the East through the Suez Canal, the Middle East oil supplies and the supply route to Russia throuah Persia. The battle of El Alamein, 23 October-4 November 1942, is the most famous event in this confrontation and was one of the decisive battles of history. In intensity it rivalled anything hitherto known and it was the culmination of a campaign in which the Eighth Army and the Desert Air Force had fought as one, their own flanks and supply routes guarded, and those of the enemy harassed, by the Navy, and their supplies brought to them by the Merchant Navy. The victory led to the final expulsion of the Axis Forces from North Africa in April 1943. The battlefield Graves of those who died in the desert campaign were moved into the Commonwealth war cemeteries at El Alamein, Sollurn, Tobruk, Acroma, Benghazi and Tripoli. The names of soldiers and airmen whose graves are unknown are commemorated, with those of their comrades from the other operations in the Middle East, on the Alamein Memorial, and the names of the missing sailors on the memorials at their home ports. ELALAMEIN WAR CEMETERY AND THE ALAMEIN MEMORIAL There are 7,367 burials in the cemetery, of which 821 are unidentified by name. The names of a further 603 men, whose remains were cremated. are commemorated on the Cremation Memorial within the cemetery. The Alamein Memorial bears the names of 11,874 soldiers and airmen who have no known grave. The 8,687 missing Commonwealth Information War Graves Sheet Commission soldiers died in the campaigns in the Western Desert (8,392), Iraq (184), Syria and Lebanon (116) and Persia (33). The 3,187 missing airmen died not only in these four campaigns but also in the operations in Greece, Ethiopia, the French, British and Italian Somalilands, Eritrea and Madagascar. The cemetery and memorial were designed by Sir Hubert Worthington, the Commission's Principal Architect for the cemeteries in North Africa, and the memorial was unveiled by Field Marshal Montgomery on 24 October 1951. The memorial cloister, some 80 metres long, is entered through three arches leading from the forecourt, and at each side of the forecourt broad flights of steps lead to the flat roof of the memorial, from which there is a view of the cemetery, the surrounding desert and, to the north beyond the road, the sea. Above the arched entrance to the cloister the dedicatory inscription reads: In the marble floor just inside the central archway are set in bronze letters, surrounded by a bronze ring, the following words: On the walls within the cloister are fixed the panels bearing the names. The main part of the building is of limestone from quarries in the immediate vicinity, but pavings and copings are of marble (Travertine) from Italy, and the name-panels are of Portland stone from England. The Cross of Sacrifice at the far side of the cemetery is raised high on a podium approached by flights of steps on either side. There is some planting among the plots of graves to soften the effect of the sea of headstones, but the spreading grass lawns and headstone borders full of flowers typical of most Commission cemeteries are necessarily absent in this desert site which occupies 20 hectares. Near the cemetery are national memorials to casualties of the First South African Division in the Battle of Cyrenaica, which took place in November and December 1941, and to the casualties of the 9th Australian Division who were killed in the Battle of El Alamein. German and Italian memorials stand a few kilometres further west along the coast road. El Alamein village lies approximately 130 kms west of Alexandria. The cemetery itself is situated in a small built-up area, also referred to as Alamein, 1 km along the old road past the turning to El Alamein village. Anew dual carriageway bypass loops around Alamein. It is therefore necessary for visitors to turn off at the dual carriageway taking the old road that runs parallel to the carriageway coastal road. El Alamein War Cemetery is located to the left or south of this road approximately 500 m from the junction of the coastal road. The main cemetery entrance will be found a further 100 metres to the south along the gravel walkway leading to the memorial, which forms the northern boundary of the cemetery. WITHIN THIS CLOISTER ARE INSCRIBED THE NAMES OF THE SOLDIERS AND AIRMEN OF THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH AND EMPIRE WHO DIED FIGHTING ON LAND OR IN THE AIR WHERE TWO CONTINENTS MEET AND TO WHOM THE FORTUNE OF WAR DENIED AKNOWN AND HONOURED GRAVE. WITH THEIR FELLOWS WHO REST IN THIS CEMETERY, WITH THEIR COMRADES IN ARMS OF THE ROYALNAVY AND WITH THE SEAMEN OF THE MERCHANT NAVY THEY PRESERVED FOR THE WEST THE LINK WITH THE EAST AND TURNED THE TIDE OF THE WAR. 1939-1945 TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND TO THE UNDYING MEMORY OF THE EIGHTH ARMY 23rd OCTOBER-4th NOVEMBER 1942 El Alamein War Cemetery, looking towards the Alamein Memorial Published by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 2 Marlow Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 7DX, England. Tel: 01628 634221. http://www.open.gov.uk./cwgc/cwgchome.htm
More About Charles James Brown: Occupation: 1939, Haulers Contractor Lorry Driver.
More About Charles James Brown and Primrose Annie Stanbridge: Marriage: 04 Feb 1939, Southend-on-Sea Registrar Office.
Children of Charles James Brown and Primrose Annie Stanbridge are:
Charles James Brown (b. 10 Dec 1912, d. 10 May 1942)
Notes for Charles James Brown: