Gordon Hedley Jarvis

A Private with the 1st Battalion, Gordon died on 28th of June 1944 aged 19. 

Gordon was born at Lowestoft on 27 November 1924, a son of Frederick and Emma Florence Jarvis. In 1939 his family lived at 2 Walmer Road and Gordon was a carpenter’s apprentice.

Gordon joined the Suffolk Regiment and served with the 1st Battalion in France. His battalion landed at Sword Beach on D-Day and went on to attack, and take, German positions at Colleville-sur-Orne before moving to a position near the Periers Ridge.  

On 28 June the battalion attacked the Chateau de la Londe, near La Bijude, and by the end of the day had captured their objectives, but during the day they lost 161 men killed, wounded, or missing: this was the battalion’s ‘bloodiest’ day in the campaign in north-west Europe. Gordon was killed in action and buried at La Bijude. He was reburied at Hermanville War Cemetery in 1945.