Grave marker of Trooper Gordon Hinsley, 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), killed in action, Rouffigny, Normandy, 1944

Photograph compiled by Major Wilfred Herbert James Sale, MC, 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), World War Two, North West Europe, 1944.

The 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) War Diary details the fighting around Rouffigny in the Falaise region in August 1944. On the 18 August it records the loss of three tanks to German anti-tank fire during an advance under the cover of a smokescreen. The casualties for the day are unnamed but listed as two officers and eight other ranks killed with seven men wounded and four missing.

While the grave marker gives the date of Hinsley's death as 18 August 1944 which corresponds with the action above, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records the date of death as 19 August 1944. The CWGC also confirms that Hinsley (14668918) was just 18 when he was killed. He is buried at the Banneville-la-Campagne War Cemetery with his headstone bearing the personal inscription, 'So young to die but so brave his life for us all he nobly gave'.

From an album of 211 photographs compiled by Major W H J Sale, MC, 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters).