Private Rowland T Smith

Private Rowland Tom Smith, son of Richard Rowland and Ellen Elizabeth Smith, of Leicester, enlisted into The Leicestershire Regiment.

He volunteered for airborne forces and attended Course 99 at RAF Ringway, which ran from 19 January to 3 February 1944, for parachute training. The course instructors' notes record: ‘Pte Smith diligent worker, satisfactory progress, average standard.’

Pte Smith was sent to the Airborne Forces Holding Unit before being posted to the 3rd Parachute Battalion's Intelligence Section at Spalding.

He jumped into Arnhem on Operation Market Garden and died on 20 September 1944, aged 19 years old.

Pte Smith initially had a field burial, in the garden of the Ter Horst family. He is now buried at Oosterbeek War Cemetery, Arnhem.