John Frederick Johnston Williams

A Lieutenant with the 1st Battalion, John died on 11th of June 1944 aged 21. 

John was born at Hockley, Birmingham, on 16 September 1922, a son of The Reverend Fred and Marion Frances Sylvester Williams. By 1939 John’s father had become the Vicar of Saint John’s Church, Lowestoft, and his family lived at Saint Johns Vicarage, 17, The Esplanade, Lowestoft.

John became an Officer Cadet and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Norfolk Regiment on 1 May 1943. He served with the 1st Battalion. 

The 1st Battalion landed at Normandy on D-Day. On 7 June they took up a position known as Rover and during the next few days they sent out fighting patrols. During the night of 11-12 June John was involved in a fighting patrol sent out to inspect a bridge on the Rover Orne. The patrol was fired on by medium machine-guns and John was killed by a sniper. Note: the battalion war diary suggests that he was killed about 12.30 a.m. on 12 June.