Henry Arthur Wisker (Service No. 1152701) was killed in action on 17 November 1944 in the vicinity of Overloon. He was Gunner in the 63 (The Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars) Anti-Tank Regiment of the Royal Artillery. He was initially buried on the premises of M. de Groot at Boxmeerseweg in Sint Anthonis and re-interred on 21 May 1947   in Grave II. D. 10. at the CWGC Cemetery in Overloon. His grave is inscribed: “Memories are treasures no one can steal. Death leaves a heartache no one can heal.”

Family background

Henry Arthur Wisker (also called Harry) was born on 03-07-1908 in Walthamstow in the West Ham district of North East London on 3 July 1908.
His parents were John William Wisker who was born on 7/6/1871 in Bethnal Green and Alice White who was born in 1875 in Walthamstow. They married on 20-09-1891 in the Bethnal Green district of London. They had nine children as follows, all born in Walthamstow: John William 28/12/1891, Frederick George 10/2/1894, Alice Elizabeth 16/12/1896, Caroline Helen 1899, Alexander Ernest 27/5/1903, Leonard Frederick 1906, Henry Arthur 3/7/1908, Lillian Kate 2/3/1912, Doris May 12/2/1915.

John Wisker was a general labourer, working in the building trade in later years. In 1901 they were living at 51, Boston Road, Walthamstow. With them were their first four children. There too was a boarder, George Cann, born 1870 in Walthamstow, a labourer, and a visitor, Charles Pells, born 1865, a Horse Hairdresser.
 
By 1911 they were living at 23 Collingwood Road Walthamstow. All seven children were still at home. John (Jnr) was a Blacksmith and Frederick was a Clicker Boot Worker (working a machine making lace holes or cutting leather). The family had moved to 5 Cambridge Road, Walthamstow by the time Lillian was born in 1912.

Henry’s brothers, John and Frederick, both served in WW1. His eldest brother, John William Wisker, was a Driver in the Royal Field Artillery (Service No. 75440). He enlisted on 13 January 1915 but was discharged on 30 October 1918 as he was no longer fit for service. It seems he had been wounded. He may have broken his left tibia. He was admitted to the 18th General Hospital on 31 October 1917 and transferred elsewhere on 12 November 1917. When he enlisted, he was living at 5 Cambridge Road Walthamstow and was a Plumber’s Mate. When he was discharged, the address he gave was 31 Collingwood Road. He was awarded the British War Medal, Victory Medal and Silver War Badge.
 
Frederick George Wisker enlisted in the Royal Navy on 22 June 1915 (Service No. M14034). He was a cook’s mate. Initially he served on HMS Pembroke I. This wasn’t actually a ship at sea but was the name for the Royal Naval Barracks at Chatham in Kent. He moved to HMS Wahine on 22 July 1916 where he seems to have remained until he was demobbed on 21 May 1919. HMS Wahine was a New Zealand Ferry requisitioned for service in WW1. From 22 July 1916 to 21 April 1919, it acted as a minelayer in the North Sea. It carried out 76 mine laying operations and laid 11,378 mines. It mainly relied on its considerable speed to evade enemy submarines. Prior to this, from 13 October 1915 to 28 May 1916, it had acted as a despatch vessel running between Malta and Mudros, the support base for Gallipoli.

After WW1, four of John and Alice’s children married. John William Wisker married Amelia Matilda Harvey and Caroline H Wisker married William Henry Reason in 1919. Amelia had been married before and was William Reason’s sister. It is thought that Amelia’s first husband, Ernest James Harvey, had been killed in France on 11 May 1918. He was a Rifleman (Service No. 324372) in the London Regiment (6th City of London Rifles) and is buried in the Crouy British Cemetery, Crouy-Sur-Somme. Alice Elizabeth Wisker married Frederick Joseph Lewis in 1918 and Frederick George Wisker married Violet L Lurcock in 1920. John and Alice’s son, Leonard, died in 1920.

In 1921 the family were living at 31 Collingwood Road. By then, only the four youngest surviving children were present, including Henry. Alice Wisker, Henry’s mother died in April 2024. She was buried on April 17th in 1924 in Waltham Forest, Greater London.

Between 1921 and 1939 it is thought that three more of their children married: Alec Ernest Wisker married Beatrice M James in 1927, Lilian K Wisker married Arthur L Cowell in 1938 and it is thought that Doris also married in 1937 or 1938.

By September 1939 John W Wisker was widowed and was living at 58 Gosport Road, Walthamstow in the same house as a widow, Lena White (born 21 December 1873). Lena White seems to have been the widow of John White. It may be that Lena’s husband was related to Alice Wisker (nee White).

Henry, meanwhile, was living at 33 Collingwood Road and was working as a Machine Operator – employed in what appears to be putting caps on battery cells. He was living with his now married sister, Alice E Lewis and her husband. With them was their child, Daisy A. Lewis born 21 October 1919, who later married George W Pheasant. Frederick Lewis was working as a Bus Conductor. There too was William M Searle, born 15 August 1891, single and also working as a Bus Conductor, and a boy, Kenneth A Searle, born 1 August 1929. Another closed record indicates the presence of another child.

Henry married Ivy May Zinzan in 1940 in Essex. Ivy had been born in 29-09-1909 in the Shoreditch area of London. She was the daughter of William and Elizabeth Zinzan. William was born in 1872 and Elizabeth in 1874. William was working as a labourer. In 1911 they were living at 13 Caroline Place Kingsland Road, Shoreditch. There too was her sister Elizabeth, born 1896 and a corset maker and William’s sister, Alice Zinzan, born 1883 and a Belt Finisher. By 1921 Ivy was living with her parents at Harman Street, Shoreditch. Her father was a Sewer Flusher for Shoreditch Borough Council (Works Dept) while her mother was working as an Office Cleaner.

Henry and Ivy had no children. Henry joined up in the Royal Artillery in 1942 and, as has been seen, died on 17 November in 1944

After Henry’s death in 1944, Ivy Wisker went on to marry Edward J Holmes in 1958 in Southend on Sea. They didn’t have any children. According to 3rd Cousin David Hoskins, she was very lady like and spoke “with beautiful rich tones”. She died at Waltham Forest in early 1982. Henry’s father, John William Wisker died in Essex in 1950 aged 78.

Military career

Henry joined up in the Royal Artillery, 63 (The Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars) Anti-Tank Regt. in 1942. 

Queens Own Oxfordshire Hussars

In 1938, the Queens Own Oxfordshire Hussars regiment was transformed from an artillery role to that of an anti-tank unit and renamed the 53rd Anti-Tank Regiment Royal Artillery (TA) (Worcestershire and Oxfordshire Yeomanry). In 1939, the Oxfordshire Yeomanry was designated the 63rd Anti-Tank Regiment Royal Artillery (TA) with headquarters in Oxford and the Worcestershire Yeomanry remained with the 53rd Anti-Tank Regiment. Four batteries were formed: 249 and 250 in Oxford and 251 and 252 in Banbury. 

The regiment took part in the coastal defence of England after Dunkirk in 1940 and was then sent to Northern Ireland as part of the 61st Division, a defence force in case the enemy landed troops in neutral Ireland to invade England.

The regiment’s two-pounder anti-tank guns were later replaced by six-pounder anti-tank guns, which were in turn replaced by seventeen-pounder anti-tank guns. These were pulled by Crusader tanks with the upper turret removed to allow the crews to easily get in and out. Quads, four-wheel drive vehicles, were also introduced to tow the guns.

The regiment was stationed in Ireland for the next three years, with the exception of the 251 Banbury Battery. In 1941, this battery was detached and became part of the 85th Anti-Tank Regiment Royal Artillery, part of a hastily assembled force needed to defend Singapore against the invading Japanese army.

Lieutenant-colonel John Thompson commanded the Oxfordshire Yeomanry from 1942 to 1944.
Batteries 249, 250 and 252 returned to England in February 1943 and took part in large-scale exercises with American and other troops in preparation for the Normandy landings.

Sir Winston Spencer Churchill became Honorary Colonel of the regiment from 1942 to 1965. The regiment did not take part in the D-Day landings because it had remained in reserve to supplement other frontline units. Lieutenant-colonel John Thompson mediated to request a combat mission for the regiment. He contacted Winston Churchill, ex-officer of the Oxfordshire Yeomanry and honorary colonel, now prime minister and minister of defence, who agreed to the request.

The regiment left for France in October. After arriving in Dieppe as part of the second army, they were merged with another regiment, the 91st Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders. In the following months, the Oxfordshire Yeomanry, together with their new Scottish colleagues, advanced with the army through France, Belgium and the Netherlands, while the enemy was driven back towards Germany.

Following the failure to capture the bridge at Arnhem in Operation Market Garden in late September 1944, the Allied Forces found themselves in a narrow salient through the Netherlands. Operation Aintree in mid October successfully captured Overloon and Venray and succeeded in widening the salient in that area. However, German patrols continued to threaten the Allied Troops in no-man’s-land in the Boxmeer area by crossing the Maas during the night.

On 7 November 1944, some 400 servicemen of the 63rd Anti-Tank Regiment entered the Boxmeer area. The unit was carrying 17-pounder guns and M10 tanks. One of the first targets was the church tower in Afferden, on the other side of the Maas, which the Germans were using as an observation point. On 9 November, they aimed their tank across the Maas at the church and successfully blew it to pieces.
Although the unit’s task was to use their M10 tank destroyers and 17-pound cannons to disable enemy tanks, the Maas unit was given another task: guarding lines, infantry work, in fact

The soldiers needed to guard three strong points in the area. These strong points marked the first time that structural action was taken in the Boxmeer no man’s land to stop German patrols that crossed the Maas, especially at night. Unaccustomed to this, they engaged in hand-to-hand combat in the dark and got beaten up badly. German patrols and grenade fire made their days far from easy. Despite their inexperience, the men of Battery 250 initially came through unscathed.

But their success quickly pales and is overshadowed by a major tragedy.
On 17 November, at 8.30 in the morning, Battery 250 on Sint Anthonisweg in Boxmeer, near the Bacon factory, came under heavy fire. The men sought cover in a trench, but they were directly hit. Seven British soldiers from this battery were killed in the attack and six were wounded. Henry Wisker sadly was one of them who was killed. 

The seven who were killed, R.F. Quainton, Sgt. J. Dyason, Korp. G.L.J. Hankin, R.B. Bland, E. Cleall, H.A. Wisker and Sgt. John Arthur Painting, were buried later that day in a field grave on Boxmeerseweg in Sint Anthonis. In May 1947, they were all reburied at Overloon War Cemetery.

From FindMyPast website: Civil and Parish Birth, Marriage and Death Records; England Census and 1939 Register Records; Electoral Rolls; Military Records
HMS Wahine NZ History Website
Familyresearcher website – Dictionary of Old Occupations
Ancestry various sources
Family members of Henry Arthur Wisker. Janet Procter for Henry’s photo. 

Soldiers of Oxford Museum

“Tot Frontgebied verklaard” by Guido Siebers and Geurt Franzen.

Researchers: Sue Reynolds, Elaine Gathercole and Anny Huberts