This memorial page is dedicated to Kenneth Wagstaff, one of more than 725 war victims connected to the municipality of Deurne documented by Stichting Oorlogsslachtoffers. The municipality of Deurne and the surrounding villages of Liessel, Vlierden, Helenaveen, Neerkant and Zeilberg were liberated in the autumn of 1944 during heavy fighting. Victims fell on all sides: Allied soldiers from countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and New Zealand, and German soldiers.

But the archive covers more than just the combat victims on Deurne soil. Residents of Deurne who lost their lives elsewhere are also commemorated: civilians who were murdered in concentration camps, forced labourers who died in Germany, people who were executed or succumbed to the effects of persecution and oppression. In addition, residents of Deurne who entered German military service and were killed elsewhere are also included.

Stichting Oorlogsslachtoffers has been documenting the story of all these people since 1995, without distinction of nationality, side or background. The goal is to give every person a name and a face, and to keep their memory alive.

 

Kenneth Wagstaff

Name: Wagstaff
First names: Kenneth
Nickname: –
Date of birth: 4 November 1925
Place of birth: Nottingham
Residence: 15 Franchise Terrace, Westminster Street, St Anns Well Road
Rank / Occupation: Private
Identity tag: 14703851
Unit: King’s Own Scottish Borderers, 6th Battalion
Date of death: 1 November 1944
Place of death: Liessel
Cause of death: –
Cemetery: Nederweert War Cemetery
Memorial site: –

Additional information

Grave location: II. F. 9.

Aged 18. Son of Mr and Mrs Harry Wagstaff, of Nottingham.

Kenneth Wagstaff, a keen footballer for the Raleigh bicycle factory, came from a military family; his grandfather William Wagstaff and his father Harry Wagstaff had both previously served the United Kingdom and its overseas territories. Shortly before Kenneth Wagstaff enlisted, he carved the words “Victory Day Soon” into the brickwork of a house on the corner of Westminster Street and St Anns Well Road. He joined the army on 20 January 1944; he was originally in The King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, before being transferred to The King’s Own Scottish Borderers.

In his last letter home, dated 28 October 1944, he wrote, amongst other things, “We are currently in a town which we liberated yesterday, and you should have seen the people when we entered the town” (We are in a town which we liberated the day before; you should have seen the people when we entered the town).

Kenneth Wagstaff died (three days before his nineteenth birthday) during German shelling whilst, in a Red Cross jeep, he was transporting several casualties, Johannes van den Berkmortel and his wife Maria Catharina van den Berkmortel, who had been injured in an earlier shelling. Henri van den Berkmortel and Johannes van den Berkmortel were killed in that shelling. Kenneth Wagstaff’s field grave was located near Camp Heitraksgoor of the Dutch Labour Service, which was based at ‘het Sloot’ in Liessel, on Kennelweg near the junction with Neerkantseweg, where the Red Cross jeep was also fired upon.

https://oorlogsslachtoffers.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Kenneth_G.jpg

William Wagstaff

Black-and-white photograph of a man in military uniform from the Austro-Hungarian period

Harry Wagstaff

Black-and-white portrait of a soldier in military uniform, smiling

Kenneth Wagstaff

A red brick wall with scratched inscriptions and graffiti

Carved wall ‘Victory Day’

Official letter regarding a military funeral in 1941

Letter regarding the death in action of Kenneth Wagstaff, from the War Office

View all persons in the category: Allied soldiers killed in action