Lucas | Thomas William
Biography
Bill had been highly disappointed to be rejected from the police force in Bishop’s Castle due to a faulty urine test; he believed they hadn’t cleaned out the collection vessel properly and hoped that when he returned from the war, he would be accepted into the force. He joined up in 1939. He passed the army health tests A1 and rose quickly to the rank of Sergeant.
The story of an end and a beginning
By Wendy Lund, granddaughter of Thomas Lucas
Young Keith Lucas is 4 years old; his sister Jeanette is 1½ years old. Sometime mid October 1944, his mother and grandmother sit him down in the living room of their cottage in Bishop’s Castle, and prepare him for hearing serious news. His young mind hears and remembers “Daddy’s dead,” and later recalls the understanding that he would not see his father again. His father, Sergeant Thomas William “Bill” Lucas, Coldstream Guards, was KIA in Operation Market Garden at Overloon when his tank hit a mine.
This is a story of an end but also a beginning 80 years in the making: 12 Oct 1944 – 12 Oct 2024.
The end occurred on 12 October 1944 in a minefield near Overloon, Boxmeer Municipality, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands. The news reached Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire, sometime later via telegram. Local Mrs Joyce Yapp told me that she never forgot, as a young girl, seeing Bill’s mother Nellie Lucas, and Bill’s wife Emma Beatrice “Cis” Lucas, telegram in hand coming down Bishop’s Castle High Street in their great distress. Thomas Lucas, Coldstream Guards 4th Battalion, Sergeant 2660946 in command of a tank, was KIA (killed in action). I remember my Nanny (Cis) gently urging me to change the wording of my family history project in the 1980s: not died but killed in action.
“The Netherlands fell to the Germans in May 1940 and was not re-entered by Allied forces until September 1944. There was severe fighting in the vicinity of Overloon in October-November 1944, when the Germans were being cleared from the region south and west of the Maas in preparation for the final attack on the Rhineland. Most of the burials in Overloon War Cemetery are of men who (were killed) during these months. The cemetery contains 280 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, and one Dutch war grave.“
Keith and his sister, Jeanette, had lost their Dad to World War 2 long before he was killed, even since before they were born. Thomas William Lucas (Bill), the gardener at Black Hall in Kerry, joined up in 1939 and there were only brief visits home to Bishop’s Castle. Keith was born in 1940 and Jeanette in 1943.
Keith has just two child-young memories of his father. On one occasion he was being driven in a War effort scrap metal collection lorry by his uncle Ken, grandfather Thomas and father “Bill”. They stopped at Hope village shop and bought Keith some biscuits. Keith remembers his Dad nearly eating them all. On the other occasion his Dad was disciplining him for a misdemeanour upstairs in their home on Castle Street. However, years after we, Keith’s children, had left home, he showed us a precious gift carved and painted for him by his father while in London awaiting deployment.
The four warplanes, a Hampden, Spitfire, Wellington and Hurricane are now gifted and held in trust at Bishop’s Castle Heritage Resource Centre and on display at the museum in Bishop’s Castle, South Shropshire, House on Crutches.
Rewind to a few years after the end of World War 2. The life of one of the many soldiers killed in war had come to an end, but a long distance and enduring connection was beginning.
Friendship with the Akkermans family
Young Nellie Akkermans, aged about 13 or 14, from Maashees en Overloon embraced the invitation to care for two graves of the fallen soldiers at Overloon on behalf of the British families who lived far away. A connection blossomed via correspondence with Bill’s widow, our grandmother, and his parents Thomas and Nellie Lucas.
She was asked to write in English by Toon Schrader in order to practise her language.
Toon Schrader was a constable and member of the resistance, who is remembered today via a named path in the area.
Nellie also took on the tending of two graves, keeping them tidy and taking flowers. To this day, 80 years on, members of the Akkermans family living in Maashees still send us photos of the grave of my grandfather Thomas William Lucas which they have decorated with flowers during remembrance events. It was a wooden cross at the time but now has a headstone.
The families were connected via The British Legion. In 1950, Keith, age 10, together with his uncle Ken Lucas, mother and grandmother sailed on the Amsterdam to Holland, to visit Overloon War Cemetry, with the help of the British Legion. They stayed at the home of Nellie’s parents with Nellie as translator. Keith recalls they were a big family who kindly “squashed up to make room for us”; Keith shared a bed with his uncle. One son, Bert, kindly took Keith on a tour and introduced him to a clog maker. They went to the National War and Resistance museum at Overloon where Nellie’s younger brother Willem (Wil) and Keith were photographed in a tank, play between them successfully overcoming their inability to communicate verbally. Wil later became a skilled linguist, a French teacher, he knew English and even later became a Welsh language speaker. Dad, Keith, also remembers being shown the Akkermans’ meeting place for the Catholic church above a garage in Maashees; presumably the local church had been destroyed in the war. A few years later, Jeanette, Keith’s sister, was able to visit the Akkermans family and her father’s grave with her mother, grandmother and uncle. By that time, they flew in an aeroplane.
Connections between this Dutch family and the Lucases in Bishop’s Castle (and Aberystwyth) strengthened and grew over many visits between their homes with love and appreciation.
Fast forward a few more years. Wil, Nellie’s young brother, was visiting Keith, his wife Ann and their children near Aberystwyth, Wales, where Keith lectured in Pure Mathematics and Computer Science. Serendipitously, they introduced Wil to a lovely lady in their church choir, Gillian. After marriage and three children, and some years in Holland; after they purchased a plot of land and cottage in Cribyn outside Lampeter they established a beautiful garden, Cae Hir (Long Field). Cae Hir has remained a local attraction for visitors to this day and further strengthened the family ties (thanks to proximity) down to the next generation, Keith’s and Willhem’s children and grandchildren.
A tragic event in war cemented a friendship between families which has lasted nearly 80 years.
With thanks to members of the Akkermans family, Keith Lucas and staff of the National Museum of War and Resistance at Overloon (Museumpark 1, 5825 AM Overloon, Netherlands) for information leading to the above article.
Wendy Lund
Coldstream Guards 4th Battalion
The 4th Battalion was formed in October 1940 for the duration of the war. It first became a motorized battalion in 1940. In November 1942 it switched from cars to Churchill tanks. While the 5th and 1st Battalions had entered France in June 1944, shortly after D-Day, the 4th Battalion remained at home until 20 July 1944 when they landed at Juno Beach. In France, they played their part in the battle at Caumont and assisted in the attacks at Vire and Tinchebray.
From 15 August until 29 September the 4th Battalion had a relatively quiet time while the 1st and 5th Battalions proceeded through Belgium and the Netherlands to take part in Operation Market Garden. It was only after the failure of that operation to take Arnhem in late September that the 4th Battalion was brought more fully into the conflict.
On 29 September they reached Eindhoven and headed towards Nijmegen the following day, crossing the River Maas and arriving in the forests at Mook that night. The initial plan had been for them to support the 8th and 185th Brigades of the 3rd Division in an attack on the Reichswald forest area to the east. However, this was cancelled on 7 October as higher priorities were given to securing the port of Antwerp and in widening the salient along the River Maas by turning south to capture Overloon and Venray. It was with this latter task that the 4th Battalion was to assist the 3rd Division. The country was flooded and heavily wooded making reconnaissance difficult. There was incessant rain and impassable roads. The attack was initially scheduled for 11 October but rain flooded the whole district, so it was delayed until 12 October to allow the ground to dry out to some extent.
The operation began with a heavy artillery barrage at midday on 12 October, after the battalion had spent a drenching night in the woods 2 miles north of Overloon. The Coldstream with 8 Brigade were to take Overloon. The Royal Engineers had worked hard to prepare approaches for the tanks through the bogs, dikes and copses which barred their path. At first the advance went briskly. However, they soon encountered minefields and fire from enemy tanks and anti-tank guns. Despite the loss of two tanks, the village had fallen by 5pm.
It was on this day that Thomas Lucas was killed in action. Together with other Coldstream Guards servicemen Reginald Francis Longueville, Harold Shaw and William Kendrick he was buried in a field grave at the Baansestraat in Overloon near the farm of Th. J. Janssen. Sidney Raven who was killed in action as well was buried in a field grave nearby the farm of Janssen.
All five of them were reburied next to each other at Overloon War Cemetery on May 19th 1947.
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