1433227 Bombardier Ernest PHELAND, 616 Bty, 173 HAA Regiment, Royal Artillery: 29/03/1944

Remembering Today

Casualty
Bombardier PHELAN, ERNEST
Service Number 1433227
Died 29/03/1944
Aged 23
416 Bty., 173 H.A.A. Regt., Royal Artillery
Son of Ernest and Alice Phelan, husband of Joyce Evelyn Phelan, of Woodford.
INSCRIPTION: GOD LOVE HIM TOO AND THOUGHT IT BEST TO TAKE HIM HOME WITH HIM TO REST
Buried at WOODFORD METHODIST CHAPELYARD
Location: Cornwall, United Kingdom
Number of casualties: 1

 

Phelan, E.
Ernest Phelan was a Bombardier, 1433227, in the Royal Artillery, 416 Battery, 173 HAA Regiment. He died on 24 March 1944, aged 23. He was a gunfitter and on an AA site at Dover he had been working on a fuse setter in the fitters' shop, testing it by using a drill round from the gun pit. After two keys had bent, he attempted to remove the fuse with a hacksaw. At about 14.30 there was an explosion. Bombardier Phelan was badly injured, internally and with a gash in his throat; he had also lost his left hand and his face was burnt. Although he was conscious and could speak when taken to hospital he was too severely injured to survive and died around 17.30. He was 23.

Bombardier Phelan had very recently married, to Joyce Evelyn Burrow, then of Woodford, Cornwall. Although born in Stockport, the son of Ernest Phelan and his wife Elizabeth Alice Dale, née Barratt, his address was at St David, Marwenstow, near Bude, Cornwall. He was buried in the Woodford Methodist Chapelyard. At the foot of his headstone are the words, "God loved him too and thought it best to take him home with Him to rest".

(THE DOVER WAR MEMORIAL PROJECT - World War Two - War-Related Deaths in Dover)


Cheshire Marriages: 1919
PHELAN Ernest Joseph
BARRATT Elizabeth Alice Dale
Stockport Civil Marriage or Registrar Attended

Births Sep 1920
Phelan Ernest Dale-Barratt Stockport 8a 154

Marriages Mar 1944
PHELAN Ernest Burrow Stratton 5c 9
BURROW Joyce E Phelan Stratton 5c 9

Widow:
1939 REGISTER TRANSCRIPTION
Shears, Stratton R.D., Cornwall
NAME DOB OCCUPATION
William H Littlejohms 23 May 1892 Farmer
Alice Littlejohms 06 Oct 1896 Unpaid Domestic Duties
Joyce E James (Phelan, Burrow) 11 Jan 1923 Domestic Servant
Sorry, this record is officially closed.

She re-married:
Marriages Mar 1949
Phelan Joyce E James Stratton 7a 417
James William J Phelan Stratton 7a 417

 

Royal artillery attestations: