Looking for information: 6978049 Corporal Robert WALLACE, 6th Bn., KOSB: 05/11/1944

Hi,

Casualty Details | CWGC
We've adopted the grave of Corporal Robert Wallace, KOSB 6th Battalion, servicenumber 6978049.
He died 5th november 1944, 30 years old, in Neerkant (Netherlands) and is burried at Venray War Cementary.
The only information we've found were some documents about where he first was burried.
Does someone can give us some more information (date of birth, parents, brothers/sisters) and we would be very happy if someone can find a picture of him. So we can give the grave a face.

Thanks in advanced,
Henriette Langius

 

Unfortunately he has a fairly common name and no family details to help identify him, his service number shows that he enlisted with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.

Have found this but unable to comment further:
Name: Robert Wallace
Given Initials: R
Rank: Corporal
Death Date: 5 Nov 1944
Number: 6978049
Birth Place: Tyrone
Residence: Tyrone
Regiment at Enlistment: Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
Branch at Enlistment: Infantry
Theatre of War: Western Europe Campaign, 1944/45
Regiment at Death: King's Own Scottish Borderers
Branch at Death: Infantry
Source Information
Ancestry.com. UK, Army Roll of Honour, 1939-1945 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009.
Original data: England. The National Archives. “War Office: Roll of Honour, Second World War.” Database. Army Roll of Honour 1939-45. Soldiers Died in World War Two. (WO304). CD Rom. Naval & Military Press.

 

Hi Henriette
I am not able to give you a direct answer to your questions but if it helps I can tell you that my mother's husband is also buried at the CWGC cemetery in Venray and I have adopted his grave.
He was 6Btn Royal Scots Fusiliers and was involved in the fighting around Neerkant on 5th November. KOSB were holding a line at Schelm on 5th, on the southern outskirts of Neerkant, for RSF to pass through and take the villages of Schans and Hof. Your own research may have shown that Sunday 5th became known in the 44th Lowland Brigade as Black Sunday given the tremendous losses that day including your adoptee. Apart from the extensive mining in the area, 6RSF and 6KOSB were also subject to extensive artillery fire from east of the canal which claimed a number of casualties.
I now live in the Netherlands and am writing a book about my mum's husband and I often visit Venray and the battlefields of Brabant and Limburg and so may meet up some time.
Good luck with your research.
Best
Keith