Hopkins | Wilfred
Biography
Wilfred Hopkins (Service No. 2764046) was shot while a prisoner of war on 17 April 1945. He was a Private in the 6thBattalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment. He was initially buried at Margraten Cemetery and re-interred on 1 May 1947 in Grave III. A. 13. at the CWGC Cemetery in Overloon. His grave is inscribed “We thought little in death you’d sleep and leave us here to mourn. Mother and Family”.
Military career
It isn’t known when Wilfred Hopkins, who was born on 24 February 1922, joined the Army, but it is known it was after April 1940.
The 6th Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment was formed in 1939 when the Territorial Army was doubled in size. It was part of the 138th Infantry Brigade of the 46th Infantry Division. The 46th Division recruited mainly from the North Midlands and West Riding areas in England. In early 1943, the battalion, together with the rest of the 46th Division, was sent to French North Africa where it became part of the British First Army and fought in the Tunisian Campaign. This was a series of battles that took place between Axis and Allied forces from 17 November 1942 to 13 May 1943 which ended the war in Africa and allowed the Allies to focus their attention on attacking Sicily and Italy.
In November 1942 the 8th Army had succeeded in driving the Axis powers west from Egypt in the 2nd Battle of El Alamein. The Allies’ next step was to land in Morocco and Algeria on 8 November and from there push eastwards into Tunisia to take the Axis forces in the Western Desert in their rear. If the Allies occupied the whole North African Coast, it would open the Mediterranean to Allied shipping.
It had been anticipated that the landings in Algeria and Morocco were likely to cause the Axis powers to respond by quickly occupying Tunisia. However, the Allies were too slow to stop Axis sea transport to Tunis so this allowed the Axis powers to greatly strengthen their presence in Tunisia.
It took until late November for conditions to be right for the Allies to push westward into Tunisia but they met strong opposition. By 10 December they had succeeded in forming a defensive line just east of Medjez el Bab (now known as Majaz al Bab) inside Tunisia. An attack eastwards in December failed and by 26 December they were back where they had been at Medjez two weeks earlier.
Over the next three months the US transferred further units eastwards into Tunisia taking up a position to the south. In the north, the British 1st Army received three more divisions, one of which was the 46th Infantry Division which included the 6th Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment, and a two division French Corps was also assembling to their right. Fighting continued during January with pressure on both sides, but by 23 January a very long front was established running roughly north/south within Tunisia.
Axis forces who were falling back from attacks by the 8th Army in the east in Libya were expected to dig in to protect the eastern border with Tunisia at Mareth. However, they faced a threat of a possible Allied attack from the south of the front reaching the coast and cutting them off. Rommel therefore instigated attacks by the Axis forces in the first weeks of February which succeeded in pushing the front in the south back to a line from Kasserine and Sbiba where passes existed which could enable them to threaten the British 1st Army’s flank. On 19 February he launched the Battle of the Kasserine Pass. This succeeded in pushing though the pass and on towards the final line of defence. However, the Allies received additional artillery support overnight on 21 February and were able to hit the Axis front with a huge artillery barrage causing them to lose the initiative. Axis attacks on other fronts were not succeeding and Rommel was aware that the 8th Army was approaching the eastern defences of Tunisia at Mareth so he called off the attack and withdrew to that defence line, reaching it on 25 February.
The Axis forces mistakenly believed that the Kasserine battle had weakened the Allied forces in the north. On 26 February they launched an attack on a broad front westward towards the north and south of Medjez al Bab. This was called Operation Ochenkopf (“Ox Head”). A central group was to move west towards Medjez, a second to the north was to move south west on a route from Mateur to Beja which was 25 miles west of Medjez and the third group was to push west 25 miles south of Medjez. The northern flank of the Axis troops were to be protected by a division advancing west and forcing the Allies out of their advance positions with the aim of gaining control of a vital town, Djebel Abiod, well to the north west of Medjez. This latter attack made good progress across hills between Cap Serrat and Sedjenane and resulted in a dangerous salient forming at Medjez.
Meanwhile the main Axis “Ox Head” offensive continued. The attack from the south was repelled and that from the north was stopped in an area called Hunt’s Pass between Medjez and Beja. When the main attack broke at Hunt’s Pass, the York and Lancasters were in Medjez railway station, where for a fortnight they had led an unpleasant existence with the slightest move overlooked from the German hill positions northwest of the town. It is understood that on 1 March there was an operation which left a large number of C company of the 6th York and Lancaster cut off, and only some of them returning. On 2 March they were busy staving off an enemy who made good use of the woods to attack Medjez Station. It was probably during this time that Wilfred Hopkins and 36 of his battalion were reported as missing but later believed to be Prisoners of War. The fighting continued until 5 March, then in terrible weather conditions, the Axis commander called off the attack, having suffered significant losses of both infantry and tanks. This was the last attack by the Axis forces in Africa.
In the area of Mareth in the south east of Tunisia, the 8th Army had succeeded in repelling an Axis attack on 6 March towards Medenine. At this point Rommel travelled to Germany to persuade Hitler that the only way to save the Axis troops was to abandon Tunisia and return the Axis armies to Europe, but Hitler refused and Rommel was placed on sick leave. Colonel General von Arnim took over.
By the end of March, the Allies had succeeded in capturing all lost ground and had also forced the Axis forces to pull back northwards from Mareth into defensive positions in hills west of Enfidaville. By 18 April the Axis forces had been pushed into a defensive line on the north east coast of Tunis. A large scale Allied attack began on 22 April with the aim of taking Tunis. On 7 May the Allies entered both Tunis and Bizerte. On 13 May, six days after the fall of Tunis and Bizerte, the last Axis resistance in Africa ended with the surrender of 230,000 Germans and Italians who became prisoners of war.
It seems that Wilfred possibly passed through an Italian Prisoner of War Transit Camp at Capua near Naples in Italy. He was subsequently transferred to Annaburg in Germany between Dresden and Berlin – Stalag IV-DZ. This was a sub camp of Stalag 1V -D at Torgau. It was opened in May 1942. From March 1944 it was designated as a Heilag (short for Heimkehrerlager), a repatriation camp for POWs waiting to be either exchanged or returned home on medical grounds. It is not known if or how Wilfred fitted these criteria.
On 17 April 1945 Wilfred died. His death certificate records that he was shot while a Prisoner of War.
The camps were liberated in late April 1945 when US and Soviet forces met on the Elbe at Torgau. However, in many cases Prisoners of War were marched away from the areas that were about to be liberated, so it is possible that he was actually shot well away from Annaburg.
Wilfred is commemorated on Rotherham War Memorial in Clifton Park.
Family History
Wilfred Hopkins was born on 24 February 1922 in Rotherham.
Wilfred’s mother was Jemima Bryan (nee Towers) who was born on 21 October 1893 in Rawmarsh near Rotherham in South Yorkshire. In 1901 she was living with her parents, William Towers and Henrietta Towers (nee Wildman), at 27 Quarry Street, Rawmarsh. Her father was a Coal Hewer. Jemima was one of fourteen children born between 1872 and 1900, of whom ten were in the household at this time.
Jemima married Alfred Bryan in the Rotherham district in early 1910. Alfred had been born in 1889 in Rawmarsh. In 1911 they were living at 32 Hoylands Yard, Rawmarsh with their first child, Ada Ellen, who was born in mid 1910. Alfred was again a Coal Miner/Hewer, like Jemima’s father. They went on to have 5 more children as follows: Alfred 1912, Evelyn 1914, Thomas 1916, William 1918 and Ernest 1920. However, it is thought that young Alfred died aged 5 in 1918 and baby William just a few months later in 1918. Alfred had been baptised in St Mary the Virgin, Rawmarsh, but Evelyn was baptised in Upper Haugh Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Rotherham.
By 1921, it seems that Alfred and Jemima were not living together. Alfred was living at Kilnhurst Road, Rawmarsh with his children Ada Ellen, Evelyn and Thomas, but his wife Jemima was not present. Alfred was described as a “Miner Ripper & Packer” at the Dalton Main Colliery Co. at Parkgate but was out of work. Jemima was living at 18, Shaftesbury Square, Rotherham along with her youngest child, Ernest. They were described as Housekeeper and Son. The head of the household was Thomas Hopkins. He was a widower born in 1883 in Conisbrough in South Yorkshire. His parents were Henry and Mary Ann Hopkins. Henry was a labourer. Thomas Henry Hopkins was one of eleven children born between 1875 and 1899. The family had moved to Conisborough from Staffordshire between 1876 and 1878.
Thomas (aged 21) had married Amelia Craddock (aged 20) on 1/8/1904 at St Stephen’s, Eastwood, in Rotherham. They were both living in Shaftsbury Square. Thomas and Amelia seem to have had eight children as follows in Rotherham: John Henry 1905, Alice Mary 1907, Emily 1909, Clara 1911, Edith 1912, Lucy 1915, Wilfred 1916 and Hilda 1918. However, Clara died in infancy in 1912, Lucy in infancy in 1915 and Wilfred aged 2 in 1918. Amelia Hopkins herself died in Q4 1918, the same quarter as her daughter Hilda was born and just a few months after the death of her young son, Wilfred. It is noted that, as well as these deaths in 1918, two of Jemima and Alfred Bryan’s children had died that same year. There is a possibility that these were caused by the Spanish Flu pandemic which hit the UK in both the Spring and Autumn of 1918.
In 1921 Thomas Hopkins was working as a Coal Getter / Miner of Barnsley Bed Coal, last working for J Brown and Co. but out of work. As well as Jemima and her son, two of his own children, Emily and Edith, were also present. There too were Thomas and Alice Sheridan (aged 26 and 25) and their daughter Selina aged 3. They were lodgers and all born in Wigan. However, Thomas was described as a “Pensioner Unable To Work At Present – On Treatment” but had worked as a Coal Getter for the Hoyland Silkstone Colliery Co. Thomas’ son, John Henry Hopkins, was living nearby at 4, Shaftesbury Square with his widowed grandmother, Ruth Craddock, her son and four Boarders. His daughter, Alice Mary Hopkins, was living with her aunt, Selina Blackburn, and family at 125, Boothtown Road, Halifax. It isn’t known where Hilda Hopkins was at this time.
Jemima Bryan went on to have three children with Thomas Hopkins, all in Rotherham: Wilfred himself in early 1922, Richard in 1924 and Ronald in 1928.
Alfred Bryan died in Rotherham in 1929.
It isn’t known what had happened to Thomas Hopkins, but Jemima went on to marry Thomas W Nelson in 1930 in Rotherham. It seems that they continued to live at 18 Shaftsbury Square. They had a son, Peter Nelson, in 1936 in Rotherham.
Wilfred Hopkins therefore had two full brothers, five Hopkins half siblings who survived infancy, four Bryan half siblings who survived infancy and a Nelson half brother. Ronald Hopkins, who was only 2 when his mother married Thomas Nelson, took the name Nelson.
Thomas Nelson was frequently in trouble with the law and this sometimes also involved Jemima and other family members.
In July 1933 both Thomas and Jemima were in trouble for assaulting the police. Thomas Nelson (aged 42 a miner of Shaftesbury Square) was also charged with being drunk and disorderly and Jemima with obstructing the police in the execution of their duty. Two police constables said that Nelson had used bad language and became very violent when they tried to arrest him. He struck one of them in the mouth and continued to struggle. His wife tried to release him striking one constable in the face and trying to kick the other. It was stated that she fought like a fiend. Thomas was sent to prison for three months and Jemima was fined a total of 30 shillings.
In August 1934 Thomas Nelson was on the right side of the law when he gave evidence as a witness to an accident where a car had hit a cyclist.
In July 1935 Jemima’s son, Thomas Bryan, aged 18 of Shaftesbury Square, who was working as a miner, was on trial with 31 year old Charles Stanley Edwards of no fixed abode for breaking and entering the shop of Sarah Saxton at Effingham Street, Rotherham between 9pm on 21 of June and 8am on 22 of June and stealing cigarettes worth £2 17s. Thomas also asked for a charge of stealing clothing worth £3 from the L.M.S. Railway to be taken into account. Thomas Nelson, aged 44, a miner of Shaftsbury Square, whom Bryan said he believed was his step father, was charged with receiving cigarettes worth £2 6s 8d which he knew to be stolen. At the trial a police officer who had proved previous convictions for larceny against Bryan, said “his mother had no control over him and his stepfather was a bad character. His mother was fond of drink and had been mixed up in local disturbances”. However, Thomas challenged him by asking “Have you any record of offences against my mother before she was married to Thomas Nelson? As far as I know, there was nothing against her.” The Court Recorder congratulated him on sticking up for his mother in this way. However, he was sent to Borstal for 3 years because it was said that he was “fast becoming a danger to the community and to himself and he would be sent to a place where he would be looked after, have healthy conditions and be taught a trade”. Edwards was sentenced to 15 months hard labour and Thomas Nelson to 8 months hard labour.
In June 1937 it was Jemima’s brother, James Towers, aged 49 and a labourer of 18 Shaftesbury Square who was charged with unlawfully and maliciously wounding Thomas Nelson of the same address by striking him with a poker on 8 June. Nelson said that at 10pm he had a quarrel with his wife at their home, during which she had hit him on head with a poker. He went to the police and when he got back to home at 11:30pm and was going to bed Towers, who lodged with them hit him on the head with a poker. He was taken to the hospital where he had two stitches inserted in the wound. Towers said they both started fighting and Nelson must have fallen and cut his head. The chairman said he thought there was six of one and half a dozen of the other. Towers and Nelson were each bound over in the sum of £5 for 12 months.
In March 1938, Thomas Nelson was in the news for another reason. He was described as aged 46 and an unemployed miner of 18 Shaftesbury Square, Rotherham. He had suffered a fracture of the left leg when he was knocked down in Ship Hill, Rotherham by a motor car. He was taken to Rotherham Hospital and detained.
By September 1939 Jemima Nelson was now living at 1 Ridgeway, Rotherham which is in the Herringthorpe area of Rotherham. She was shown as married but her husband was not present. With her were five of her children: Ernest Bryan born 18/9/1920, Wilfred Hopkins born 24/2/1922, two undisclosed children (probably Richard and Ronald Hopkins) and Peter Nelson born 17/11/1936. At this time Wilfred was working as a Labourer for a Coal Dealer. Ernest was a Steelworks Labourer.
Wilfred himself was in court in September 1939 when he was fined 5s for riding a bicycle without a rear light on 19 August at Doncaster Road, Dalton. He was described as aged 17 and a labourer of 1 Ridgeway, Herringthorpe, Rotherham.
He was in trouble with the law again in April 1940, though this time for a more serious offence. Wilfred Hopkins, (18), haulage hand, of Ridgeway, Rotherham, was sentenced to prison for six months for having stolen cigarettes valued at 17s 11d and 1s 11d cash, the property of Wilfred Oxley at Herringthorpe Valley Road on 10 March. Cyril Williams (18), haulage hand, of Doncaster Rd, Dalton and a 10 year old, boy who were charged with Hopkins were each bound over for two years in £5 and placed under supervision of the probation officer. All three pleaded guilty. The Detective Officer said that Wilfred had first denied the offence but later said “You know I did it, I might as well tell you I did it”. In a voluntary statement, he said “I did it because I was fed up and I wanted to get into the army.” In evidence, he said, “I am fed up, wherever I go, they do not want me”. The Chief Constable said that Wilfred had several previous convictions, the latest being on 15 April that year at Derby, for having travelled on the railway without paying his fare.
Clearly, at some point after this Wilfred got his wish and joined the Army, only to be captured in Tunisia in March 1943 and shot as a prisoner of war on 17 April 1945, just before the war in Europe ended.
The inscription on his grave just refers to his Mother and Family. It seems that Thomas Nelson had left the family at least by 1945 if not earlier. In May 1945 he was sent to prison in Hull for 6 weeks for obtaining £1 11s from the Ministry of Labour’s lodging allowance by false pretences. He had declared that he was maintaining his wife when this was not the case. He was also charged with the non payment of maintenance money to his wife. He said “he had not sent any money home during the time in question because he was on the sick list and he did not go on the panel because he was not in benefit”. For that offence he was fined £5 or 30 days in prison – the sentences to run together. Jemima was living without Thomas Nelson at 1 Ridgeway in 1946, but in 1948 Thomas Nelson was again present.
Wilf’s brother, Richard, also served in the Yorkshire and Lancaster Regiment in WW2, seeing service in Italy. He married in 1947 and had three children.
It is thought that Wilfred’s father, Thomas Henry Hopkins, died in 1954 in Rotherham. His mother, Jemima Nelson, died in Rotherham in 1959. Wilf’s younger brother, referred to as Ronald Hopkins Nelson, died in 1974 aged just 46. His elder brother, Richard Hopkins, died in 1991 in Rotherham.
