Military Chat

Found this, there is reference to some being taken prisoner but look at this.

The savage battle in western Arnhem on September 19 proved decisive to the British defeat. The failure to break through and relieve the paratroopers holding the bridge led to the virtual annihilation of the British 1st Airborne Division and the ultimate failure to capture a critical objective of Operation Market-Garden. The South Staffs had gone into battle with 47 officers and 820 soldiers of other ranks. Only six officers and 133 enlisted men returned.

http://www.historynet.com/operation-market-garden-2nd-battalion-of-the-south-staffordshire-regiment-defend-arhem-bridge.htm

Hi Pat in Cyprus, Lorraine/Lucky Laine's Press article and photo of Walter Sankey from Winchester and then at Arnem is definately not Walter Henry Sankey.
Walter Henry Sankey was my father in laws younger brother and his bestman. He was in an Army uniforn in 1941 at the wedding and pre a Corporal, (I have the picture infront of me as I type).' Wally' was at my wedding. In fact I saw him every working day before and afterwards . His surviving daughter will vouch that he was in the Army and a POW in Germany but as Lorraine says, he was NOT a para at Arnem. So who was this Para Walter Sankey and where is his MI?
The last Sankey MI I found was by accident whilst studying Parish Church MI's in the HRO at Winchester. I was very lucky that day?
Jim

Jim - so glad to hear from you and I have written to cousin Sue about our tree!

Unfortunately, it sheds no light on Walter, showing only Alfred James and his siblings.


I remain fairly convinced that 'our' Walter is the person who was still living at least recently

(edit - the post I have edited today 7 Feb 15 on page 1 referred to this person, but I have removed details)

Is this Alfred's wife Clara?

Name: Clara Sankey
Birth Date: 7 Apr 1895
Date of Registration: Jun 1970
Age at Death: 75
Registration district: Basingstoke
Inferred County: Hampshire
Volume: 6b
Page: 215

the only one I see who died in Hampshire; no other Sankey deaths in Basingstoke

what are the birth/death dates on the gravestone, Lorraine?

wondering whether the death is registered under a different surname ...

Pvt Walter Sankey

Birth: unknown
Death: 1944, Netherlands

Extracted from the Hampshire Observer dated 21 October 1944:

Among the gallant men of the British First Airborne Division, whose heroic fight at Arnhem has been told and re-told was Pte Walter Sankey, the South Staffordshire Regiment, a Wintonian who has now been officially reported missing in North West Europe. Pte Sankey who is the son of Mr and Mrs A J Sankey of 3 Fairdown, Winchester, attended St. Thomas' senior Boys' School and on leaving school at 15 was employed as a porter at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital until he was called up in October 1943. On completing his basic infantry training Pte, Sankey was posted to the Worcestershire Regiment, but later volunteered for the air borne forces. It has been officially reported that the South Staffordshires were among the units at Arnhem, so it is apparent that Pte Sankey was with the troops that spent those historic days under heavy enemy fire.

Burial:
St Andrew Churchyard
Chilcomb
City of Winchester
Hampshire, England
Plot: War memorial inside church


(above, from below link)

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi

Chris :)

Thanks Chris. Now this brings the possibility of Walter being a member of our Sankey Family, because they mostly came from Chilcomb, and latterly also from Alresford Road, Winchester which is strangely also in the Parish of Chilcomb.
More work to be done.
Also the Sankey MI I mention above is in the same church but is on the WW1 War memorial. I missed the WW2 Memorial as at the time was in a rush and had no reason to seek it out. I will next time I'm in the UK.
The one I found is:
Memorial Inscription.
HRO Files.
Winchester: St Andrews Churchyard, Chilcomb (1627-1983) Indexed. Recorded by P. W. and C. C. Cooper.
258.
Section AA.
Starting with the north wall of the church and moving in a clockwise direction, completing with the aisle from the west end.
2. Roll of Honour
1916
William Charles SANKEY
For God, King and Country.

So Chris, that's what Lorraine was quoting in her second post on page 1 :-)

but there is no official death record ... he is not shown at CWGC

oh ... the findagrave record

http://tinyurl.com/k7r3yqz

was created by Luckylainey, so we come full circle! It's just the info already known from the newspaper article, not confirmation of death


I'd still like to know more about Clara Sankey's death so we can find out more about her.


and another question Lorraine ... what is the date of the press article talking about Walter the son of AJ being a POW?

This is on the WW2 Talk website from 2011:

have just found my wife's uncles details on Ancestry, they are:
UK, British Army Prisoners of War, 1939-1945 about W. H. Sankey
Name:W. H. Sankey
Rank:Corporal
Army Number: 5253083
Regiment: Worcestershire Regiment
POW Number: 12671
Camp Type: Stalag
Camp Number: VIII-A
Camp Location: Görlitz, Saxony
Record Office: Infantry Record Office, Shrewsbury, Shropshire
Record Office Number: 19.
'Wally' SANKEY was born 16 Nov 1918, Winchester, Hant., England
He was registered as Walter Henry SMITH because his father used the name SMITH to access the Army as an under aged soldier.
Wally Sankey died Nov 2004 at Winchester.
His name was corrected back to SANKEY on 17 Sep 1930 on his parents declaration.
Before attempting to obtain a copy of his PoW records I am wondering if there is any other publications or data to be found here or elsewhere.
All assistance would be gratefully appreciated.

Hello,

Chris Ho :) Thank you for adding the Find a Grave info as I added that memorial and had forgotten about it, but through this thread I am now convinced that he was taken POW and returned home. So now you have reminded me I think I will delete that memorial until I know the full facts as it could be misleading.

Hello Jim, welcome to the thread and thank you for your input.

JoonieCloonie, I have this information regarding Clara from the Burial records:

Clara Minnie Sankey, address 47 Quarry Road, Winchester, age 75 years, died in Basingstoke Hospital, buried 24th April 1970 in a re-opened grave with Alfred James Sankey. (The address is given as 47 Quarry Road which are the houses opposite my house now). I do not have any details from an MI at the moment.
The date on the press article is 21 October 1944.

Joonie I was talking to Walter Henry's ex-daughter in Law only yesterday and she was telling me that when she went to Canada with her ex-husband, Walter's son (now deceased), they walked into a restaurant and met another Sankey family who turned out to be related to her husbands family but were originally from Kent. What a small world we live in!

Does everyone agree that Pte Walter Sankey(MIA) and Walter Henry Sankey in Jame's and my tree, were cousins as their father's were brothers?

JoonieCloonie I have been trying to understand your posting on 24 Jan re: the electoral registers etc and think I may have figured it out but I will send you a pm to check :-)

Thank you all for your input. This thread has been so helpful. Originally I was so upset to think that he did not have a memorial especially with CWGC but if we are correct and he was taken POW and returned home then it truly had a happy outcome and I will be able to settle.

Lorraine

Got your PM, and you got it :-) (almost as much detective work to get that as it was to come up with it in the first place!)

that is my theory anyway ... there has to be some explanation for the name on the ER and that one makes sense !


so Clara is the person whose death in Basingstoke I posted ... dob 7 April 1895 ... who could have been born anywhere by any name ...


I rather hope we can all stop posting details about Walter Henry Sankey since it is known for an absolute fact that he is not the one we are looking for and not the one referred to in the missing-in-action press article and just muddles up the thread here :-)

I will have to check cousin Sue's massive tree to see whether she tracked any Kent Sankeys to Canada!

so to match Clara's birthdate in the deaths index, this would have to be her birth:

(edit 7 Feb 2015 ... only 1 Clara Minnie born in the appropriate quarter in England but not likely the same person)


Do you think you will make the enquiry to the person I PMed??

I know our family was recently pleasantly surprised to read a newspaper article (that I found on line by accident just googling) about a relation of ours killed in WWI who was commemorated at a church we had not known he attended ... he died without marrying so his siblings' descendants have carried on his memory and we were so pleased to see that the church did as well, and we attended this year's remembrance service for the dedication of a reproduction of the memorial plaque that had been lost in a fire years ago.

If we have the right family, they might be just as pleased :-)

Joonie,

Thank you for your pm. I think I will write a letter and post it through the letter box.

What if Clara Minnie was already married and not divorced, that would account for no marriage to our Walter?

Incidentally there was a Sankey who was Mayor of Winchester many moons ago, but I have never found a connection.

I think Alfred James's Clara needs a separate thread?
Clara Sankey (nee ?) was born on 7 Apr 1895
Clara Minnie Burton was born on on 25/28 Apr 1895 per her father's British Army WWI Pension Records
NAME: Clara Minnie Burton
BIRTH DATE: 28 Apr 1895
BIRTH PLACE:Kingston
AGE:19
DOCUMENT YEAR:1914
RELATIONSHIP TO SOLDIER: Child
FORM TITLE:Military History Sheet
NUMBER OF IMAGES:16

I suspect that Clara was not her only or real Christian name?

nonono, Jim! :-D

Clara is only of interest as she relates to Walter, and all the info about him (well, the dearth of info about him) is in this thread, so this is where she should stay.

I worked 15 hours yesterday and have yet to get back to cousin Sue about who is supposed to be sending you the big Sankey doc - I think she has updated it a fair bit since the version she sent me a few years ago, so I'll check with her today.

so far she thinks you have the wrong John as father of your Edward!


Lorraine, that's what I was thinking about a possible 1932 marriage where the husband did not die til 1971, i.e. after her ... we often see a couple who cohabited for years but could not marry because of a prior marriage and married in old age (one of my gr-gr-grandparent couples did that, although I have yet to find the prior marriage!) ... but if the prior spouse did not predecease, there would be no marriage

but the birth dates don't seem to match as Jim found ... but then the birth dates in death records of people born in the 19th century are not always gospel!

I am now very pleased to confirm that Private Walter Sankey did return home to Winchester after WW2.

I would like to thank everyone for their contribution to this thread.

Lorraine

too tantalising Lorraine! is he the person I thought he might be? :-D

I will pm you Joonie :-)

and with what Lorraine had found - Walter's full name on an old ER - now I find the sad news that Walter died in 2012 - but most certainly survived the war and lived long after!

Lorraine does have a way of reaching his family so we're agreed that this thread should be much edited at least, as there is family (and no, he was not the person I thought he might be, although he is still a man of a little mystery).

and of course, Walter was indeed my cousin much removed, so I thank Lorraine for bringing this whole branch of Sankeys to my knowledge, and I'll be in touch with Jim ... once I get this household moved ...


oh, and now you must tell me about this Sankey who was mayor of Winchester! I'll add that to the tale of an ancestor's sibling's in-law who was once mayor of Harrogate :-)