22 October 2009

137343 Captain John Maurice Macfarlane Yeo, Royal Armoured Corps

137343 Captain John Maurice Macfarlane Yeo of the Royal Armoured Corps (RAC) died on the 22nd October 1944. He was 28 years old and the son of Lt-Col Moritz Rodwell Yeo and Flora Irma Yeo of Bridport, Dorset. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) notes his regiment as 147th (10th Battalion, The Hampshire Regt) Regiment.

John Yeo is buried in Geel War Cemetery in Belgium. The CWGC website states that:

"In the early part of September 1944, Geel was the scene of some of the heaviest fighting encountered by Commonwealth troops since they had left Normandy. The 50th (Northumbrian) Division and the 15th Scottish Division were both involved here in the forcing of crossings of the Albert Canal and the Meuse-Escaut Canal, necessary for the advance into Holland. Some of the casualties they suffered were originally buried in a meadow near the centre of the commune, and some in the St. Dymphna civil cemetery; these graves were later moved into Geel War Cemetery. The cemetery contains 400 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, six of them unidentified."

The War Graves Photographic Project has a photo of Captain Yeo's last resting place.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk (1939-1945 Roll of Honour)
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The War Graves Photographic Project

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