WILLS, Richard Lloyd Joseph

Rank: 
Captain
Unit / Base: 
3 Commando
Regiment/Corps: 
Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry
Service: 
Army
Number: 
129346
P.O.W. number: 
4148
Died : 
Thursday, September 25, 1969
Captain Richard Wills was awarded the Military Cross for gallant and distinguished service during operations at Dieppe 19 August 1942 during which he was shot in the neck and became a prisoner of war [1][1a][2]. There is an additional reference to this in our entry for Gunner Hubert Wadsworth [view....].
Extract from a letter written by Captain Wills
"I have recently been to France and visited Berneval. I saw the Bera family who have the Cafe de la Mer a few yards from our monument. There were flowers in front of it and they told me there were flowers every day, winter and summer. They were very kind and most touching, and made me stay for some time while they picked a vast bunch of flowers from a nearby garden for me to place on the monument.
Our landing really seems to have been the biggest thing in the war for them as the actual invasion by-passed them, and the memory of it is still very much alive. In particular of course, the names that meant a great deal to me were those of my batman Snowy Rhodes [more....], and Ed Loustalot [more....], the American Lieutenant. I naturally visited the gully up which we went from the beach, and also the cleft in the cliffs where some of us finished up at the end of the battle" [3 ].
  • June 1961 appointed C.B.E. (4)
  • Read more from the Moretonhampstead History Society [view....]
  • His death was announced in Commando Association newsletter 50 of March 1970.
Additional Sources
[1] London Gazette 37484, page 1170.
[1a] Award Recommendations / National Archives file WO 373/101/266.
[2] Prisoners of War / National Archives file WO392/1 and WO392/11.
[3] Commando Association newsletter 29 of September 1959.
[4] London Gazette 42370, page 4154.
 
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