'Tommy Elkins', 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), on board HMT Orion en route to Egypt, 1941

Photograph by Major Wilfred Herbert James Sale (1913-1995), MC, 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), World War Two (1939-1945), 1941.

The ocean liner RMS Orion, launched in 1934, was requisitioned as a troopship in 1940. She transported troops to and from England, Egypt, New Zealand, Australia, and Singapore; she survived the war and was scrapped in 1963. Troops in transit were able to take advantage of some of the liner's peacetime facilities, such as the swimming pool.

According to the Sharpshooters' war diary, 40 officers and 603 other ranks of the 3rd County of London Yeomanry embarked on the Orion at Avonmouth on 14 August 1941. The troopship sailed for the Middle East the next day. British forces travelling to Egypt avoided the Mediterranean Sea because of the threat from German and Italian forces. The Sharpshooters' route included stops at Freetown in Sierra Leone and Cape Town in South Africa, then on to Aden and then up to Egypt.

Corporal Thomas Wilfred Elkins, aged 24, was wounded on the 13 July 1943 in Sicily serving with 'A' Company, 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters). He died of his wounds ten days later and, according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, is buried at Tripoli War Cemetery in Libya, with the personal inscription on his grave reading, 'Sleep Lightly, Lad; Thou art for King's Guard at Daybreak'.

From an album containing 229 group photographs compiled by Major W H J Sale, MC, 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), 1941.