Cadman | Alexander Ernest
Biography
Alexander Cadman was killed in action on 16 October 1944 near Overloon. He was 27 years old and a Private in the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, 2nd Battalion (service no. 4036008). He was initially buried in Oploo and was transferred on 30 January 1946 to the current cemetery of the War Graves Commission in Overloon, where he is buried in plot number I.A.5.
Family background
He was born on 13 October 1917, the son of Martha Winifred Cadman and George Patrick Collins, at 48 Brook Street, Quarry Bank, West Midlands. It has not yet been confirmed that his father was indeed George Patrick Collins.
Alexander Ernest Cadman is said to have been adopted by his uncle, Charles Edwin Cadman, because he did not know his father’s name and his mother, Martha Winifred Cadman, had to raise him alone. At that time, there was a stigma attached to unmarried mothers, but there is no information about when the adoption took place. The only document that exists on this subject is Alexander’s marriage certificate, which lists Charles Cadman as the father of the groom. This was in 1940. It has always been assumed that George Patrick Collins was Alexander’s father, but that he had to be adopted because George was married to someone other than Martha.
Over time, the situation changed and George and Martha had seven more children, who took George’s surname Collins, even though their parents were never married.
His siblings were: Leslie Collins (1926-), Winifred Mathilda Collins (1928–2007), Frederick George Patrick Collins (1930–1991), Mary Ann Collins (1934–2019), Lillian Patricia Collins (1936–2018), Elsie May Collins (1938–2016) and another brother.
He married Minnie Nancy Barnsley on 8 May 1940 and in 1943 became the father of a daughter, Barbara Cadman, who sadly died in 1959 due to a serious illness. He lived in Staffordshire.
Ernie, as he was known within the family, was one of eight children (four boys and four girls). At the start of the war, the boys were separated from their parents and sisters. They did not see each other again for 45 years, during which time two brothers from the family were killed in the war. All the family knew was that two brothers had died in the war.
It is only in recent years that they have learned that Alexander is buried in Overloon, and they are still searching for Alexander’s brother Leslie Collins, who also died in the war.
Military background
It is not known when Alexander enlisted with the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, 2nd Battalion.
The 2nd Battalion of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry began the war in Jamaica, from where it returned to England in March 1942. It may have been around this time that he joined. After a period in the east of England, the battalion moved to Yorkshire to join the 79th Armoured Division as armoured infantry.
In March 1943, the 79th Armoured Division was disbanded due to a shortage of tanks, and the battalion joined the 185th Infantry Brigade, which consisted of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment and the 1st Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment. The 185th Brigade was part of the 3rd British Infantry Division. At that time, it was to participate in the attack on Sicily. The battalion began to mobilise to acquire the necessary knowledge of combined operations and prepare for warfare in the mountains. However, the Canadian government wanted their troops to participate in the invasion of Sicily, so the 3rd Division was transferred to the 1st Corps and became one of the two assault divisions for the Western Front.
From July 1943 to March 1944, the battalion was constantly on the move from one training area in Scotland to another, relocating seven times during that period. At the end of March 1944, the battalion moved to a camp near Haywards Heath, one of many camps used to concentrate troops prior to embarkation for D-Day.
The battalion took part in the D-Day landings of Operation Overlord, where they failed to capture the D-Day objective of Caen due to the presence of the 21st Panzer Division. They fought in the Normandy Campaign and Operation Market Garden and the rest of the North-West European Campaign with the British Second Army.
On 1 October 1944, the battalion departed by motorised transport from Asten in the Netherlands to a new location near Mook. The journey proceeded without incident. The enthusiasm of the local population noticeably waned as the battalion approached the German border, but there was no hostility. The route led over the bridge at Grave across the Meuse.
The battalion arrived in the new area, in Mook, which lies on the eastern bank of the Meuse, south of Nijmegen and north of Overloon. A gently sloping sandy landscape, covered with dense young pine forests. It was an area where the Luftwaffe was unusually active, flying over 300 aircraft per day.
Until 12 October, they remained in the area of Mook, Groesbeek, Heumen and Oeffelt, carrying out reconnaissance missions under very heavy enemy fire. The aim was to attack the enemy in the east, but the enemy’s strength in the Reichswald was too great, so the plan was changed to move south to capture Overloon and Venray and cross the Meuse at Venlo. The battalion therefore moved down to Oeffelt and then to Rijkevoort, where it arrived on the 12th.
On the 13th, they succeeded in an attack on the woods south of Overloon and reached the front edge of them, but with the loss of two officers and 17 other casualties. They remained there for the next two days. On the 16th, the battalion was ordered to clear and hold woods northeast of Venray. However, the attack was seriously hampered by problems crossing the Molenbeek. They had to dig in at night in open fields that had been cleared of mines. It rained heavily and they suffered casualties from heavy mortar fire and mines. Despite further heavy enemy fire, they reached their objective the next day but suffered 50 casualties. It was on this day that Alexander Cadman was killed.
On 20 October, the battalion was relieved by the Royal Ulster Rifles and rested near the farm “De Rouw” northeast of Overloon. They remained there until 26 October when they returned to Venray to relieve the East Yorkshire Regiment.
Alexander was temporarily buried in a field grave in Oploo and reburied at Overloon War Cemetery on 30 January 1946.
