DONALD I. R. POOLE

Guardsman 2615854

Donald Iliffe Ryder Poole was born in 1922, the son of John Iliffe and Winifred Poole. They lived in the Old Reading Room Cottage in Riverside Road West, and there was a daughter called Barbara. His father had been badly gassed in World War 1. He attended the local school (Register No. 726) from 1 September 1926 to 31 December 1929 when he moved on to school at Yealmpton.

In September 1944 Guardsman Poole was serving with the Kings Company, 1^st Battalion, The Grenadier Guards. He was wounded in action at Pont-a-Marcq on 3 September, and was evacuated to an American Medical Unit where he died on 5 September aged 22. There was a story circulating in Newton Ferrers that the medical unit had been attacked by aircraft on that day, and that Donald Poole had been killed whilst lying on a stretcher. However, Regimental HQ, Grenadier Guards, has no record of this.

Donald Poole is remembered with honour in Villeneuve–St Georges Old Communal Cemetery (Grave 94), and on the family grave in Holy Cross Churchyard.