Lance Corporal Eric Melling

Eric Melling, son of Thomas and Helen Melling and husband of Annie Melling, of Wigan, Lancashire, enlisted into The Loyal Regiment and volunteered for airborne forces.

Lance Corporal Melling successfully completed his Glider training and was posted to B Company, 1st (Airborne) Battalion, The Border Regiment. He took part in Operation Market Garden (Arnhem).

L/Cpl Melling is reported to have been killed by an enemy sniper in the Westerbouwing area, south of the restaurant building on 21 Septemberr 1944, aged 21. According to MoD records he was buried in a collective grave in or near a wood. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Groesbeek Memorial to the missing.

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