Albert Edward Bainbridge (Service No. 5051669) was killed in action on 14 October, 1944 in the vicinity of Overloon. He was aged 26 and a Corporal in the 2nd Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment. He was initially buried at Cemetery De Kleffen, Overloon and re-interred on 15 July 1946 in Grave I. C. 5. at the CWGC Cemetery in Overloon. His grave is inscribed “Sleep On Beloved.”

Military career

Albert initially enlisted into the 6th Battalion of the North Staffordshire Regiment and later transferred into the Lincolnshire Regiment. The 6th Battalion of the North Staffordshire Regiment was a Territorial battalion which trained in the UK for many years until it landed in Normandy in June 1944 as part of Operation Overlord where they fought in the Battle for Caen and gained an excellent reputation during Operation Charnwood and the Second Battle of the Odon. However, it had been in France for less than two months when, in August 1944, along with other infantry units of the 59th Division, it was broken up to supply replacements to other British units, due to a severe shortage of infantry replacements throughout the Army at the time. This is probably when Alfred transferred into the Lincolnshire Regiment.
 
The 2nd Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment had also taken part in the D-Day landings and was then engaged throughout the Normandy Campaign, taking part in Operation Charnwood, Operation Goodwood and throughout the rest of the Northwest Europe Campaign until Victory in Europe Day in May 1945.
 
Following the failure to take the bridge at Arnhem in Operation Market Garden in late September 1944, the Allied Forces were left in a very precarious narrow salient through the Netherlands. It was the aim of Operation Aintree to widen this salient by heading south from Nijmegen to take Overloon and then Venray before finally eliminating a German bridgehead on the River Maas near Venlo.
 
On 9 October 1944 the Battalion found itself in Haps, just south of Nijmegen in the Netherlands and North of Overloon. They were ordered to move south to St Anthonis on 11 October, but this was postponed to the following day due to bad weather. The move was completed on 12 October and they then moved slightly further west the next day, though with one man killed and 3 wounded.
 
On the 14 October, the day on which Albert died, the plan was for B Company to be guided through a wood held by the Royal Ulster Rifles to its front edge from where they would carry out a recce to check if a stream was passable and if the north eastern corner of a wood to the south was held by the enemy. However, the guides were late and the move through the wood was slower than expected, so the recce did not take place. At 7.30am the Company began to advance south out of the wood. However, before the Company had advanced 100 yds the enemy opened fire from a track about another 100 yds ahead. The advance continued but came under such heavy fire with so many casualties that the Company Commander issued an order to retreat back to the Royal Ulster Rifles’ position. By this point one Lieutenant and 34 other ranks had been killed or wounded. Following a recce by the Company Commanders, it was decided to launch an attack at 1530 hours with D and A companies in the lead. The enemy had been seen moving in the area of the stream in front of the wood. It was thought that the enemy holding the Battalion objective were probably a Company strong. Immediately the attacking force came into the open they were subjected to intense artillery and mortar fire but they pressed steadily on to reach their objective. During this action the Battalion suffered very heavy casualties including four officers killed and another four wounded.
 
A total of 27 men of the 2nd Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment who died that day are buried alongside each other at Overloon, including Corporal Albert Edward Bainbridge.

Family history

Albert Edward Bainbridge was born in Bagworth in Leicestershire on 1 February 1918 to John Robert and Amy Bainbridge. Bagworth is situated just north west of Leicester, between it and Coleville.
 
John Robert Bainbridge had married Amy Cockerill on 25 January 1896 in Bagworth. John had been born on 26 January 1869 at Thornton which is close to Bagworth and Amy on 27 May 1877 in Markfield, just a little to the east of Bagworth.
 
They had 11 children as follows of which Albert was the youngest: Gladys Louise 14/12/1896, Phyllis Sarah 28/3/1899, John William 1900 – died 1901, John Robert 4/11/1902, Amy Estella 24/12/1904, Doris Kathleen 4/4/1907, Adeline May 11/5/1909, Horace Edgar 11/3/1911, George Eric 21/4/1913, Ronald Kitchener 12/1/1916, Albert Edward 1/2/1918.
 
The birth places of their children suggests that the family was living in Thornton from 1899 to 1905, then Markfield up to 1911 and then in Bagworth from 1911. In 1901 John and Amy were living in Main Road, Thornton. By 1911 they were living at 64, Station Road, Bagworth where they remained until at least 1939.
 
John was a coal miner. In at least 1921 his employer was the Bagworth Coal Company, though he was actually out of work at that time. He was a Colliery Banksman by 1939, which means he was in charge of loading or unloading the cage, drawing full tubs from the cages and replacing them with empty ones.
 
Gladys, Phyllis and Amy had left home by 1921. Gladys had married in 1918 and in 1921 Amy was living in as a servant in the Maynard Arms in Bagworth and married in 1926. It isn’t known where Phyllis was in 1921 – but she married in Burnley in 1927 before returning to Leicester by 1939.  In 1921, John (jnr) was also a miner – a road worker working below ground at the Bagworth Coal Company, but like his father, he was out of work.
 
By 1939 all but Albert had left home. Albert was working as a Railway Porter on the LMS Railway. All of his brothers and sisters had married by then, except Ronald who was living in Leicester in his married sister’s household, Gladys Gibbins. He, too, later married in 1941.
 
Albert’s mother, Amy, died in 1941 in the Market Bosworth district, so she did not live to hear of her son’s death.
 
Albert married Ivy Hughes in 1942 in the Ashby de la Zouch district. Ivy was born on 27 May 1920 in Ellistown to John William Hughes and Eliza Roper who had married in 1916 in the Ashby de la Zouch district. Ellistown is just south of Coalville in Leicestershire. John was born on 4 August 1881 in Thornton and Eliza on 4 July 1887 in Staffordshire. They had two children, both born in Ellistown: Nellie on 22 June 1916 and Ivy on 27 May 1920.
 
In both 1921 and 1939 the family were living at 204, Whitehill Road, Ellistown which is just south of Coalville.
 
In 1921 John was working as a Coal Miner – a Stall Chargeman – for Wm. Earnes – an agent. By 1939 he was working above ground as a Colliery Banksman, the same as Albert’s father. By 1939 Nellie was working as a Paid Domestic Servant and Ivy as a Shoe Hand Dresser.
 
In 1921 Eliza’s father, Thomas Roper, and her brother, William Roper, were living with the family. Both were widowers. Thomas was retired but William was working as a Surface Labourer for Wm Earnes – Agent. William was still living with them in 1939 and working as a Colliery Weighman.
 
Albert and Ivy had two children, both in Leicestershire: Philip J in 1943 and Raymond G in 1944.
 
Sadly, Albert died on 14 October 1944.
 
His death was announced in the Leicester Daily Mercury of 4 November 1944 as follows: “Cpl. Albert Bainbridge (26) whose wife lives at 204, Whitehill Road, Ellistown, has been killed on the West front. He leaves two baby boys aged 18 months and two months. Corpl. Bainbridge was previously employed on the L.M.S. railway at Market Bosworth.”
 
Albert was not the only one of his brothers to serve in WW2. Ronald joined the Royal Artillery in 1939 and survived the war, appearing to join the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry by October 1944. George tried to sign up before the war but was rejected due to a ‘hammer’ second toe. He then worked as a miner at Bagworth Pit. He tried to sign up again after war broke out but was rejected as he was a miner and needed at the coalface. It isn’t certain whether Horace served in the war or was also in a restricted occupation. It also seems that at least some of his sisters’ husbands served in WW1. Gladys’ husband, JE Gibbins, appears to have been a Sapper with the Corps Of Royal Engineers and Adeline’s husband, AL Copestake joined the Royal Navy as a boy sailor aged 17 in 1917, but was invalided out in 1919.
 
Ivy Bainbridge went on to marry Joseph W Holt in 1948 in the Ashby de la Zouch district. They had one child, Cynthia Holt, in 1950 in the Coalville district.
 
Albert’s father, John Bainbridge, died in 1959 in the Market Bosworth district.
 
Ivy Holt died in 2001 in the Leicester district.

From FindMyPast website: Civil and Parish Birth, Marriage and Death Records; England Census and 1939 Register Records; Electoral Rolls; Military Records
Lincolnshire Regiment War Diaries via Traces of War Website
Wikipedia – information on the Lincolnshire Regiment
Wikipedia – Glossary of coal mining terminology
Leicester Daily Mercury of 4 November 1944
Help from Lucy Smith. Albert’s granddaughter and Shelagh Bainbridge, his nephew’s wife.
 
Research Elaine Gathercole