Second Lieutenant Wilfred H Speke

{ Bunny }

21 Sep 1944

Wilfred Henry Speke was the son of Henry and Lilian Speke, of Lee Green, London. He enlisted in the Royal Armoured Corps, volunteered for airborne forces and was granted a commission.

Second Lieutenant Speke successfully completed his parachute training at RAF Ringway on course number 70 from 26 June to 9 July 1943. His course report stated ‘very good confident type of NCO’. He was posted to command 4 Platoon, B Company, 11th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, and took part in Operation Market Garden (Arnhem).

2nd Lt Speke was killed in action by a mortar bomb on 21 September 1944, aged 30, in the area of the Old Church, Oosterbeek, and is commemorated on the Groesbeek Memorial to the missing.

If you are part of 2nd Lt Speke’s family and would like to complete this biography, you can apply to the Curator to do so. To do this you will need to become a member of ParaData and select the 'friend or family member' option on the registration form.

If you would like to find out more about becoming a member please visit our registration page.

Members of ParaData can submit their material by clicking on the 'Add content to this article' button on the right.

By Rod Gibson

Read More

Service History

Latest Comments

There are currently no comments for this content.

Add your comment