Beccles Patrol

County Group
Suffolk Group 1
Locality

Beccles is a large town, 6 miles west of Lowestoft.

Patrol members
Name Occupation Posted from Until
Sergeant Kenneth Gordon Vandon Pink

Insurance manager

 Unknown 03 Dec 1944
Corporal Cecil William Poll

Baker

 Unknown 03 Dec 1944
Private Reginald Herbert Goffin

Window cleaner

 Unknown 03 Dec 1944
Private Ernest Edward Swain

Tractor driver

 Unknown 03 Dec 1944
Private Ratcliffe Swales

Farmer

 Unknown 03 Dec 1944
Private John Swales

Electrical fitter

 Unknown 03 Dec 1944
Private Charles Edward West

Lorry driver for flour mill

 Unknown 03 Dec 1944
Operational Base (OB)

The OB of Beccles Patrol was situated in Worlingham Wood. According to Mr Bartram, the son of Group Commander Lieutenant William Bartram, it was obliterated and no trace remains. The estate’s gamekeeper confirmed that during his years of work he has never found any remains of an OB in the woodland. We could not establish whether the site was destroyed in the 1940s or much later, when the bypass was built.

OB Status
Destroyed
Location

Beccles Patrol

Other information

Beccles was a Nodal Point, or in later terminology, a Class B Defended place (i.e. a place with a strong independent garrison). The Home Guard unit responsible for its defence was ‘G’ Company, 1st Battalion Suffolk Home Guard. Headquarters was at the Old Drill Hall.

Group Photograph

 

References

TNA ref WO199/3389

Hancock data held at B.R.A

1939 Register

Evelyn Simak and Adrian Pye.

B.R.O.M at Parham, 

Mr R Bartram, Beccles (personal interview); Gamekeeper Worlingham Estate (personal interview); Mike Osborne, 20th Century Defences in Britain/Norfolk (2008)