Walter Charles Hellier

Walter Charles "Dick" Hellier
06 Jun 1922 - 1997
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Profile picture
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Dick Hellier 15 Dec 1941 (from Anita Griggs)
Postings
Unit or location Role Posted from until
Uplyme / Axminster Patrol Patrol member Unknown 25 Sep 1941
National ID
WHAC 174/3
Occupation

Gardener

Address
Reeds, Lyme Road, Uplyme, Devon
Other information

Dick is not recorded on the nominal roll. He left before stand down and joined the Royal Ordinance Corps and stayed after the war. He said that because he had served as an Auxillier, he could have been exempt from National Service, but he chose not to. His army number was 10566424.

Dick's father died when he was young and so had to 'live off the land' and knew the area very well. He married Marion L Mitchell in 1952.

His family recall he was not proud of what he was prepared to do, and did not speak about it often, only after a couple of drinks. When The Last Ditch by David Lampe was published (1968) he was furious - he felt it should have been kept secret and was actually a little bit ashamed of some of the things the Patrol would have had to have done. He talked briefly about going to Coleshill. The family have Dick's stand down lapel badge. For some time he had kept a gun and pistol (now destroyed) which was a "rifle type that was the same as the one included in the exhibition in the IWM".

His daughter Anita Griggs was first able to march at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Day 2017 in his memory.

Other pictures
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Dick's lapel badge (from Anita Griggs)
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Walter Hellier Transfer to Army (from Anita Griggs)
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Walter Hellier Army service book (from Anita Griggs)
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Walter Hellier Army service book (from Anita Griggs)
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Walter Hellier (from Anita Griggs)
References

Anita Griggs - Daughter

1939 Register