Devonshire Regiment, Italy 1944 or not

Discussion in 'British Army Units - Others' started by MadMac, May 9, 2022.

  1. MadMac

    MadMac Member

    First time here in several years and hoping the knowledgeable folks here can shed some light on something.

    Background is that my late father (Samuel McGrevey) was in the 8th Devonshire as of March 1942 (at least, that's what it says on the marriage certificate when he married my Mother then!). I remember him talking about being in Greece, Italy and (possibly) Egypt. When I posted here some years ago, it was mentioned that the 8th was a training regiment.

    It's now emerged that he was wounded in Italy in June 1944 - I knew he had been wounded, but didn't know the details until now. There's a subsequent correction to the record for this mentioning that the regiment should be the 1st Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment. I have no reason to believe that he was in any regiment other than the Devonshire - was there any known connection between them and the Devonshire around that time?
     
  2. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    The Army sent men to where ever they wanted to what ever unit they wanted .
    There doesn't need to be a connection between the Devons & The RWK.
    8th Devons was a training battalion as you say.
    He could have been posted to any unit from there.
    Drew suggested that you apply for his service records back in 2014.
    Devonshire Regiment
    That is where the answers lie.
     
    Tony56 likes this.
  3. MadMac

    MadMac Member

    Ah! I couldn't find the original post. What's the mechanism to apply for his records? I'm in the US, which may complicate matters.
     
  4. dryan67

    dryan67 Senior Member

  5. MadMac

    MadMac Member

  6. gmyles

    gmyles Senior Member

    Hi

    1 QRWK Regiment came to Greece from Italy in mid December along the rest of 4 Inf Div at very short notice to help quell the communist insurrection in Athens and the Port of Piraeus.

    Horrible place to be at that time, take the worst of Palestine, Beiruit, Northern Ireland, and all the other post war counter insurgency operations and compress it into 4 weeks.

    4 Div were responsible for clearing all of Eastern Side of the port of Piraeus.

    I have their war diaries from Dec 44 and Jan 45 if you want them.

    Book on WW2 History can be bought here QUEEN’S OWN ROYAL WEST KENT REGIMENT 1920-1950 - Naval & Military Press

    Hope this helps

    Gus
     
  7. MadMac

    MadMac Member

    Book ordered, thanks. I’d certainly be interested in seeing the diaries if that’s practical.
     
  8. Tony56

    Tony56 Member Patron

    13 May 44 according to casualty lists.
     
  9. Gary Tankard

    Gary Tankard Well-Known Member

    1 RWK war diary for 13th May 1944.

    1_RWK_May_44_0004.jpg
     
    MadMac, Tony56 and Charley Fortnum like this.

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