The Commonwealth war Graves Commission gives Harry Rackham's date of death as between 26th May 1940 and 4th June 1940. He was 6395870 Sergeant Harry Rackham of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment and he was killed - or died of wounds - during the desperate days in May and April 1940 when the British Army was pinned to the coastline in northern France. Had Harry managed to survive, he may well have been one of the many thousands of men rescued from the Dunkirk beaches by an unlikely flotilla of military, merchant and private vessels. As it was, he died seventy years ago today (according to the UK Roll of Honour) and is buried in Le Grand Hasard Military Cemetery in Morbecque.
Harry was born in Suffolk and was living at Great Yarmouth when he enlisted. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records that he was 36 years old, the son of Edith Kindred of Hopton, Suffolk.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
Sources:
Ancestry (UK Army Roll of Honour 1939-1945)
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
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