Our final blog about the Dorchester men who died in the advance spear-headed on D-Day commemorates two further men who served with the Dorsetshire Regiment.
Nicholas O’Connell
Nicholas’s parents were Daniel and Kathleen O’Connell, and he was born in Waterford, Ireland. He became a Warrant Officer Class II with the Dorsets and forged a connection with Dorchester when he married Florence Rosemary Bartlett in 1934.
Nicholas died on 14th June 1944 and is buried at Hottot-Les-Bagues War Cemetery
Neville Leedham Hawkey
Neville was born in 1911 in Surrey to Richard and Alice. It seems that he was an only child, and by the 1921 Census his father had died and Neville and his mother were living in Liverpool. Neville attended Dovedale County Primary School and later the Royal Masonic School.
Neville was an accountant for British American Tobacco, but by 1936 he enlisted and a year before his marriage in 1937, we catch a glimpse of him on Brighton seafront thanks to the Streatham News. He was a pillion passenger on a motorcycle being ridden by a comrade in the City of London Signals when they were involved in an accident – luckily nobody was hurt. Neville’s address was in Rushey Green and the Signals were camped at Seaford.
In 1937 Neville married May, and their son Malcolm came along the next year. The family lived at Wootton, Monmouth Rd, Dorchester, but by 1944 had moved to 39, Trinity Street.
By D-Day, Neville was a Captain in the Dorsetshire Regiment. He died on 12th July 1944 – it is doubtful whether he met his baby daughter, Christine, born the same year. He is buried at Bayeux War Cemetery.
Neville’s probate shows that he was able to leave £384 to his wife. May re-married in 1951.