Ch/X107152 Marine Pope, William - a short biography
William (‘Bill’) Pope was born in Dagenham, Essex, United Kingdom on 12th February 1923, the youngest of the four children of Albert and Amy Pope. As a young man his politics were somewhat left of centre and he held strong beliefs against violence and war (probably because of witnessing the effects of The Great War upon his father). It must have been an enormous surprise to his family when in 1943, aged 19, he volunteered to give up an easy, safe life as a Co-operative store grocer's boy for ‘hazardous service’ with the Royal Marines Commando. He thus followed in the footsteps of his older brother who had joined the Royal Navy in 1939 and was serving as a convoy DEMS gunner.

Bill became a machine gunner in 41 Royal Marine Commando (S Troop) at a time when the commando was re-fitting after severe losses incurred at Sicily and Salerno. The next significant action was to be Operation Overlord where, on 6th June 1944, S Troop landed on Sword Beach (Lion sur Mare). The Battle of the Scheldt was still a long way off but before arriving in De Haan/Blankenberge to train for Operation Infatuate 41 Commando had to fight its way through France and Belgium: notable engagements being the re-inforcement of Pegasus Bridge and the capture of the Würzburg radar station at Douvres.

November 1st 1944 saw 41 Royal Marines Commando landing at Westkapelle, and the eventual linking with the 2nd Canadian Division, assured the liberation of Walcheren. From the dyke breach landing at Westkapelle ultimately, Bill found himself with S Troop “moved into rest” at Goes in March 1945. The “rest” proved short-lived for the fear of German counter-offensives saw the need for rapid mobility and punch exercises such as Dash and Club. It was on 12th April 1945 in a tragic accident, whilst returning from one such exercise, Bill Pope fell from the rear of a speeding Jeep sustaining a skull fracture from which he was not to recover. Buried initially at ‘s-Heer Hendrikskinderen, Bill now rests at  Bergen-Op-Zoom War Cemetery, The Netherlands.

[Written by his nephew Graham Pope.]