Edward Frank Clare

Transferred to Royal Signals 15th October 1942. He went into Europe on D-Day +5 ending up in Holland.

His son Stephen Clare; "Unlike his brother George who fought in Burma with the Chindits, my Dad unfortunately didn’t talk about his exploits during WW2, just as he didn’t talk about the Temple Cloud Patrol.

Some of his documents have survived and are with my sister in America, but many were lost over the years. We know that he received a personal letter from General Paget relating to a special mission he successfully completed, but sadly this letter was lost. He also completed missions delivering secret documents to General Montgomery, but we don’t have details of these either. We know that he took down the enormous Nazi flag which flew over the Gestapo Headquarters in Brussels, but the flag disappeared when my Mum and Dad moved in 1991.

My sister also has his 5 medals: 1939-45 Star, France and Germany Star, War Medal, Normandy Campaign Medal and Defence Medal.

He continued to serve in the Royal Signals in the headquarters of the British Army of the Rhine in Germany and Belgium until mid 1947, eventually being promoted to Sergeant and Senior Superintendent”

His Army Testimonial, which thankfully did come to light in 2010, and the contents speak for themselves.

Edward’s parents were Lionel Clare (1889-1970) and Hannah Clare (nee Rogers 1890-1974). His brothers were Richard James (1915-1968), George (1916-1987) and Jack (1921-2006). He also had 2 sisters Hilda (1919-2007) and Margaret (1932-2020). Edward, his parents and his brothers Richard and George are buried in the cemetery at the rear of St. John’s Church, at Farrington Gurney.

Edward was sworn to secrecy about even the existence of the Auxiliary Units, and he never told anyone about this for 60 years (not even family members), until he was contacted out of the blue by Tim Wray in 2003, who was carrying out research into the Somerset Auxiliary Units.

He died in 2010, his son Stephen writing the Obituary.