Nestled deep in the Surrey countryside stands the Brookwood 1939-1945 Memorial. Maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, its panels contain the names of nearly 3,500 men and women of the land forces of Britain and the Commonwealth who died in the Second World War and who have no known grave.
Among the men and women who names are carved on the memorial are Special Operations Executive agents who died as prisoners or while working with Allied underground movements, servicemen killed in the various raids on enemy occupied territory in Europe, such as Dieppe and Saint-Nazaire, men and women who died at sea in hospital ships and troop transports, British Army parachutists, and even pilots and aircrew who lost their lives in flying accidents or in aerial combat.
But the panels also hide a dark secret. Entwined within the names of heroes and heroines are those of nineteen men whose last resting place is known, and whose deaths were less than glorious. All were murderers who, following a civil or military trial, were executed for the heinous offense they had committed. The bodies of these individuals, with the exception of one, lay buried in un-consecrated ground.
As Paul Johnson reveals, the cases of the ‘Brookwood Killers’ are violent, disturbing and often brutal in their content. They are not war crimes, but crimes committed in a time of war, for which the offender has their name recorded and maintained in perpetuity. Something that is not always applied in the case of the victim.
Author(s): Paul Johnson
Publisher: Frontline Books
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 265
City: Barnsley
Cover
Book Title
Copyright
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1. Crime in Wartime, 1939–45
Chapter 2. Execution and Commemoration
Chapter 3. The Brookwood Memorial, 1939–45
Chapter 4. Sergeant Ernest Charles Digby –The Baby Killer
Chapter 5. Gunner Ernest James Harman Kemp –The Cabbage Patch Murder
Chapter 6. Corporal Hassan Naameh Medlish –A General Court Martial
Chapter 7. Private Cyril Johnson – A Question of Proof
Chapter 8. Lance Corporal Walter Clayton – TheMorecambe Beach Strangler
Chapter 9. Private David Miller Jennings –A Murder in the NAFFI
Chapter 10. Private Arthur Peach –The Killing of Kitty Lyon
Chapter 11. Lance Corporal Frederick James Austin –I Didn’t Know it was Loaded!
Chapter 12. Private Theodore John William Schurch –I Have Played My Game and Lost Fairly
Chapter 13. Private Terence Casey –A Case of Mistaken Identity?
Chapter 14. Private John Gordon Davidson –A Skilful Interrogation
Chapter 15. Corporal Dudley George Rayner –Guilty, Sir!
Chapter 16. Private Arthur Thompson –Death at the Nags Head Inn
Chapter 17. Bombardier Joseph Howard Grossley –It was the Germans!
Chapter 18. Private August Sangret –The Wigwam Murder
Chapter 19. Private Charles Eugene Gauthier –A Light of Love
Chapter 20. Private Horace Beresford Gordon –Got Any Gum Chum?
Chapter 21. Private Mervin Clare McEwan –The Tattooed Killer
Chapter 22. Private Charles Arthur Raymond –A Voluble and Incessant Talker
Chapter 23. Gunner Kenneth Charles Sydney Prior –A Disgraceful Death
Chapter 24. The Third Man – Killer and Victim
Conclusion
Sources and Bibliography
Index
Back cover
