51 (Westmoreland and Cumberland Yeomanry) Field Regt. Royal Artillery

I am conducting research into the men on the two King’s School Worcester war memorials The intention is to produce a commemorative book. I am looking to find details of how men were killed and if possible obtain a photograph of the individual. Could anyone help with the following casualty?

HALTON, Eric Creighton Major 40485 51 (Westmoreland and Cumberland Yeomanry) Field Regt. Royal Artillery buried BENGHAZI WAR CEMETERY, Libya 30 killed 04/04/1941

 

Royal Artillery: 51 Field Regiment (Fd Regt RA) | The National Archives

Reference: WO 169/1454
Description:
Royal Artillery: 51 Field Regiment (Fd Regt RA)
Date: 1941 Jan.- Nov.
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Closure status: Open Document, Open Description
Access conditions: Closed For 29 years

TD

 

here is a discussion on 51 field here 51st Field Regiment R.A (TA) • Axis History Forum

 

Major Halton would have been one of perhaps three majors in the Regiment - either 2IC or one of the BCs.

Farndale's volume on the royal artillery 1939-42 Years of Defeat mentions that on the 4th April 51 field regiment (203 & 370 batteries@ 12 guns) were at Tecmis(*) Libya with the 9th Australian division and 203 knocked out three tanks for the loss of Lt Birkbeck and three men wounded. If the BC had been killed in that action I would have expected it to have been mentioned. The unit's next move was back to Gazala He could have been killed in a random enemy action or a traffic accident in the withdrawal.

I think this might be Tecnis Libya 90 miles east of Bengazi. It also seems wrong as the 9th Australian division's WD says the formation withdrew to Tecmis on the 5th, with the and the battle referred to took place much closer to Bengazi.

Here are links to the WD of the 9th Australian Division,
AWM52 1/5/20/5 - April 1941, part 1
the appendices include a detailed report on the action of the 2/13th battalionon 4th April which was supported by 203 battery
AWM52 1/5/20/6 - April 1941, part 2, appendices

You need to visit the National archives to chekc the WD of the 51st Field Regiment

 

I am conducting research into the men on the two King’s School Worcester war memorials The intention is to produce a commemorative book. I am looking to find details of how men were killed and if possible obtain a photograph of the individual. Does any one have access to the WD of the above unit? I believe for the period I am interested the reference is WO 169/1454. The details of the actual casualty are below.

HALTON, Eric Creighton Major 40485 51 (Westmoreland and Cumberland Yeomanry) Field Regt. Royal Artillery buried BENGHAZI WAR CEMETERY, Libya aged 30 killed 04/04/1941

 

51 (Westmoreland and Cumberland Yeomanry) Field Regt. Royal Artillery

 

Alieneyes - well found - good job theres a search facility on the site

TD

 

Even better that Google picks it up as its first result, TD

 

Dear Mark,

A bit of background history for your research.

Eric was a solicitor born into a legal family with a military heritage.. I am not related but was previously a solicitor at Hough Halton & Soal on Abbey Street Carlisle (the firm closed in 2014) and I recall a picture of Eric in uniform hanging on the office wall. If you have not been able to access a picture of him yet, let me know and I will see if I can track the picture down. Many years (c15) ago, Eric's wife came to visit the firm along with his son Nick. His wife (now deceased) was a quite remarkable lady and hailed from the Carr family (Carr's Biscuits of Carlisle). The Cumberland News in Carlisle has previously published an obituary for her and I do also recall a two page article about Nick's visit to Eric's grave in Tripoli (although I cannot recall if the article had detail of exactly how Eric had died when Rommel took Bengazi) .

Eric father was Colonel Freddie Halton, a solicitor who could claim that he had served two Queens in that he managed to hold down an appointment as the Carlisle coroner for around 50 years from the reign of Victoria right through to the coronation of Elizabeth. (Amongst his many inquests, he presided over the enquiry into the death of Percy Toplis, the Monocled Mutineer who was shot by the police at Plumpton near Penrith)..

Co-incidentally I now live in a house which was built for Eric's great uncle, Henry James Halton who founded the legal firm in Carlisle in the 1850s and rose to become Registrar of the High Court in Carlisle

Eric's name and sacrifice is recorded on the war memorial on the church in Scotby near Carlisle.

We shall remember him.

 

Ok. Whilst decluttering the attic,came across the 2 page article by a journalist Maurice Chesworth on Eric's grave published in the Cumberland News in 2000. This records that Major Halton was killed alongside his men on a high escarpment outside the seaport. The article records that his wife and son not only visited his grave in April 2000 but were able to locate the precise spot where he was killed thanks to directions given by a Bombardier Bradley in a letter in December 1941 to the Dean of Carlisle.

We shall remember them.