Alfred Walter James Drake died in the Battle of Overloon on 16/10/1944 and is buried in the cemetery there. He was a Lance Corporal in the 1st Battalion of the Royal Norfolk Regiment (Service no. 5118748). He was aged 30.
 
The 1st Battalion of the Royal Norfolk Regiment was still in India on the outbreak of the Second World War. It remained there until July 1940, when it returned home. It landed in Normandy on D-Day (6 June 1944). In the ensuing campaign in North-West Europe, the regiment won two of its five Victoria Crosses of the war, the highest number for any single regiment. It suffered particularly heavy casualties in the Battle of Overloon.
 
In the book “Thank God and the Infantry – from D-Day to VE-Day with the 1st Battalion, the Royal Norfolk Regiment” by John Lincoln there are two references to Lance Corporal Drake’s death:
 
p116: Also in B Company, Lieutenant Balsom recalls:
“As we attacked, a German tank broke cover and started retreating towards Venraij and as it went it fired a series of Parthian shots in our direction; one unfortunately landed in the middle of L/Corporal Drake’s section, immediately killing him and wounding others in his section.”
 
P119: Lance Corporal Ernie Seaman MM, one of only three stretcher-bearers in the battalion who survived, unhurt, to the end of the campaign:
“ ….the big battle was Overloon and Venraij, a very sharp battle and bad conditions, very wet, a lot of casualties…..This was where I had my luckiest escape – L/Cpl Drake got a direct hit from an 88mm shell…”
 
Alfred was born on 4th August 1914 in Stepney in the East End of London.
 
His Father was Alfred Thomas Drake who was a lamplighter and his mother was Louisa Drake (nee Hinkley). They had married in 1896 in Tower Hamlets. Louisa was a tailoress at the time and her father was a Tinned Meat Examiner. Both were born in the East End of London. Alfred and Louisa had at 8 children (two sons and 6 daughters) between 1897 and 1914, of which Alfred was the youngest. All were born in the East End. The eldest child, John Alfred Drake, died in infancy and a daughter, Gladys, died aged 1.
 
Sadly, Alfred Thomas Drake died in Stepney in 1917 aged 42, so by the 1921 census Louisa was shown as a widow, aged 45. With her were her remaining son Alfred and five of her daughters plus her brother, James Hinkley, who was a 39 year old single window cleaner. The four eldest girls were all working – two in the clothing trade, one as a bar maid and the other as a grocer’s assistant.
 
By 1939 Alfred WJ Drake was living at 135 Parsloes Avenue, Barking & Dagenham, Essex. He was still single and working as a Stuff-over Frame Maker. He was also an ARP (Air Raid Precautions) First Aider. He was living with his widowed sister, Louisa E Robinson, who still worked in the clothing trade. There too was their uncle, James Hinkley, still single and a window cleaner.
 
At least three of his other sisters had married by this time and had also moved out of the East End to Harrow in Middlesex. They were all living in the same household along with their children and one of their husbands. Another of their husbands was still living in Stepney, living on his own and working at a steelworks there. Clearly, the three sisters had moved away from the East End of London, perhaps in response to advice to evacuate London, a wise precaution given the devastation of the East End that was to follow during the war.
 
In 1940 Alfred WJ Drake married Hilda P B Cox in Brentwood, Essex. In 1939 she had been living in Dagenham, Essex and was an upholsterer’s machinist, born on 20th August, 1918. After Alfred WJ Drake’s death in 1944, a probate record showed him as having lived in Ilford, Essex and his estate was administered by his widow, Hilda P Drake.
 
Alfred and Hilda had a son, also called Alfred in 1943 in Olney, Buckinghamshire. He married Dianne M Hannan in Redbridge, Essex in 1976. Alfred (Junior) died in 2018. They had no children. His widow, Dianne, believes that her husband’s father came home on leave and was able to see his son. He was very reluctant to go back to his regiment and had to be persuaded to do so by a local policeman.
 
Hilda went on to marry Cyril T Campbell at Ilford in Essex in 1949. They had one child, Shirley O Campbell in East Ham in 1950. Hilda Campbell died at Havering in Essex in 2005. Shirley Campbell is also now dead as is one of her two daughters.
 
Dianne Drake recalled that Alfred’s widow, Hilda, and his sister Ethel visited Overloon in 1946/7 with other family members – and Alfred and Dianne Drake had themselves visited the cemetery many times. His mother, Hilda, had asked that half her ashes should be spread on each of her husbands’ graves. Her son obtained special permission for this from the War Graves Commission who complied with this wish. Alfred (Junior) was a friend of the Overloon museum. The day they scattered Hilda’s ashes was the day the museum re-opened after expansion.
 
Emil Molineaux, Alfred’s great nephew, mentioned that his family had been bombed out of the East End of London and had relocated to Essex as a result.
 
Alfred’s nephew, James Molineaux, has provided a number of photos, including one of Alfred in uniform and several of his and Hilda’s wedding day. He recalled: “I can’t remember very much about his young days except perhaps a visit to us in Dagenham. He was very fond of a good cup of tea and my mum had a huge one pint mug just for him. Also he had an uproarious laugh, you know ha-ha-ha, ho-ho-ho.”

From FindMyPast website: Civil and Parish Birth, Marriage and Death Records; England Census and 1939 Register Records; Electoral Rolls; Military Records
Military records from ForcesWarRecords website
Extracts from “Thank God and the Infantry – from D-Day to VE-Day with the 1st Battalion, the Royal Norfolk Regiment” by John Lincoln
Photos and recollections from James Molineaux (Alfred’s nephew)

Research Elaine Gathercole
Recollections and assistance from Dianne Drake (Alfred’s daughter in law) and Emil Molineaux (Alfred’s great nephew)