| Additional Information: | Son of Mr. and Mrs. G. Theaker, of Staveley, Derbyshire. |
Extracts from an email Caroline Beck, nee
Theaker.
I am the niece of George
William Theaker.
I just by chance happened to come across your
website as I was curious to discover whether there was anything under the
Theaker name on the Yahoo search engine, low and behold i find that there
is!!
I was drawn particularly to the Theaker War
Dead section to see if there was perhaps any mention of my uncle, George William
Theaker, who was killed in action at the battle of Knightsbridge, 1942
(actually before the battle of Alamein as it states on the website).
Not expecting to find anything, I came across his name and the details of his
regiment. It is extremely moving for me to see my Uncle's name
acknowledged and commemorated in this way.
Of course, as the youngest child growing up in
a warm, loving family, I always knew about the existence of my Uncle George,
from the stories my father would tell me and my two sisters and brother, but as
is often the case, it was not until I grew older and was more able to comprehend
the devastating effect that my Uncle's death had on his mother, my father and my
aunt, (their father had passed away aged 55 in mid/late 1930's), that I realised
the true measure and profound goodness of this young man who died aged 23.
My aunt, Gwen Theaker, who is now 91 and
very frail has lived every day with fond thoughts of her brother and never got
over his death. My dear father, Gervase Theaker, who is now 82
often relays stories about his brother and particularly about their childhood
days growing up in Staveley, Derbyshire, in 1920/30's. A time fraught with
economic difficulty, poverty and social injustice. My father has some
wonderful photos of himself and my Uncle together as small children, along with
photos of my Uncle after he had joined the Army. In fact my father has a
large collection of letters that his brother wrote to him and his sister during
the war together with photographs of himself and his comrades in Egypt. I
have opened the box of letters and read the contents only once before, a
very thought provoking and moving experience. The last letter he wrote was
17th May 1942, which was exactly 20 years before I was born. In the letter
he explained that he couldn't tell of his exact whereabouts due to security
reasons, but that he was to be going out on manoevres on a mission he understood
to be extremely dangerous. That letter will stay in my mind for evermore.
My Uncle was a religous young man and the local Padre to the regiment
wrote to my Grandmother following his death and told of his couragous yet gentle
spirit, in spite of the awful circumstances he found himself in. Along
way from Middlecroft Road, Staveley.
| Memorial: | ALAMEIN MEMORIAL, Egypt |
| Grave Reference/ Panel Number: |
Column 12. |
| Location: | 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. Within the south-eastern part of the
cemetery will be found the Alamein Cremation Memorial. |
| Historical Information: | The Alamein Memorial Land Forces panels commemorate the soldiers of the British Commonwealth and Empire who fell in the campaigns in Egypt and Libya, and in the operations of the Eighth Army in Tunisia up to 19th february 1943 - the date when it came under the command of General Eisenhower - and who have no known grave. It also commemorates those who served and fell in Syria and Lebanon, Iraq and Persia. The Alamein Memorial Air Forces panels commemorate the airmen of the Commonwealth who fell 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 and who have no known grave. Those who served with the Rhodesian and South African Air Training Scheme and have no known grave are also honoured here. The Alamein Memorial commemorates nearly 12,000 Second World War casualties. |