2612016 L/Sgt Thomas Louis HILSON, 2 Grenadier Guards: 01/06/1940

STAN50 · May 15, 2025

I'm looking for information regarding this Guardsman. Service No. 2612016; died 1st June 1940. It would be interesting to know the circumstances or whereabouts he was fighting at the time.

Thanks for any information.

Owen · May 15, 2025

He was 2nd Bn.
Lance Serjeant Thomas Louis Hilson | War Casualty Details 2280123 | CWGC
LANCE SERJEANT THOMAS LOUIS HILSON
Service Number: 2612016
Regiment & Unit: 2nd Bn. Grenadier Guards
Date of Death: 01 June 1940
Age 31 years old
Buried or commemorated at MARQUISE COMMUNAL CEMETERY
Grave Reference: Plot 1. Row C. Grave 9.
Location: France
Additional Info: Son of Thomas and Rose Margaret Hilson; husband of Edna May Hilson, of Brentwood, Essex.
Personal Inscription: TIME PASSES MEMORIES REMAIN, BELOVED, TILL WE MEET AGAIN

Online history here
#9 - The Grenadier Guards in the war of 1939-1945 / by ... v.1. - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library
war diary
War Diary: 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards, BEF - Sep 1939 to Jun 1940 | WW2Talk

dbf said: ↑

June 1st, 1940
The withdrawal was carried out according to plan, H.Q. Coy and spare men moving off at 0003 hours. There were no incidents on the line of march until LA PANNE was reached. The village was being shelled continuously with H.E. and incendiary shells and movement was difficult in the dark owing to falling debris and tangled telephone wires. However, there were no casualties and the beach was reached at about 0150 hours. Parties were detailed for embarkation and given orders to turn left handed along the beach and continue until a jetty was reached.

By 0300 hours the remains of a jetty was reached. It was under heavy shell fire and there seemed to be no chance of embarking whatsoever. The beach was crowded with soldiers and as dawn approached H.Q.’s dug themselves in the sand dunes. However, they were almost immediately shelled out of this and continued along the beach to Dunkirk which was about 10 miles distant. Enemy air activity was intense and there was no intervention by British or French planes. The beach and the ships standing out to sea were continually bombed. Some casualties were lost from low flying machine gun attacks by enemy fighters and great difficulty was experienced in evacuating the casualties.

Nos. 1, 3 and 4 Coys. arriving on the beach at 0315 hours found no Staff Officers to direct them and no small boats available in which to ferry men out to the Destroyers. What small boats there were had to be used for carrying the wounded in and had it not been for certain officers in the Bde. organising this evacuation many wounded officers and men of other Units would have been left on the sands or drowned by their own comrades in their panic to save their own skins. Several Guardsmen at once came to the assistance of their Officers in his unpleasant situation and held back several hundreds of undisciplined troops who were endeavouring to seize the boats for themselves rather than let their wounded comrades use them.

Squadrons of Messerschmitts flew low down the sands machine gunning the mass of men; how few they killed was remarkable, but here again it was always noticeable that Guardsmen and other disciplined troops stood their ground and returned the aeroplanes’ fire with their rifles and Bren guns whilst most of the other troops rand for the cover of neighbouring sand dunes. Much good work was done that morning by Officers and men of the Bde. although it may never be known to the rest of the B.E.F.

Embarkation proceeded slowly throughout the day from various points on the beach and from Dunkirk itself. The last of the Bn. left Dunkirk at 1800 hours that night. There were unfortunately many drowned.
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STAN50 · May 16, 2025

Many thanks for that interesting information.

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2612016 L/Sgt Thomas Louis HILSON, 2 Grenadier Guards: 01/06/1940

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