The Royal British Legion
Staple Branch
Charity Number 219279
His father was a special constable in Staple and served in the Home Guard as well as being the village farrier and encouraged Robert and his brother, Ken, to work hard at school.
After a few years, Robert Snr. left the forge to work for himself, moving to Plough Corner, the site of the old Plough Public House where Rowan Close is now.
Robert William Butcher
Died on 19th June 1943 Aged 19
The Buffs, Royal East Kent Regiment
Robert William Butcher was born in Basra, Iraq in 1924 to Robert James Butcher and Edith Helena Butcher.
His father, Robert Snr., a farrier like his father before him, had joined the Dragoon Guards before WW1, rising to the rank of Major Farrier and serving with distinction in France, where he was mentioned in Despatches, and in the Middle East where son Robert was born. Robert Snr. Finally left the army in 1927 and eventually moved to Staple in 1931 to work as farrier at the Old Forge on the corner of The Street and School Lane. Robert was about seven when the family moved to Staple.
The Forge, Staple
The Plough, Staple
Robert and his brother were well known in pre-war Staple, collecting newspapers and old paper to sell to the paper pulpers for sixpence a load.
Robert was 15 at the outbreak of the Second World War and had been working in a butcher’s shop in Ash for a year or more since he’d left school. Like other youngsters, he’d watched dog fights in the skies above Kent and seen the damage caused by enemy bombing. The Butcher family, along with other villagers, had a narrow escape when a low flying German aircraft dropped a stick of bombs in the area of Plough Corner and Leyham Nursery Fields – fortunately failing to detonate!
At the age of eighteen, Robert received his Call-up Papers, said his goodbyes to his father and mother, his sisters Margaret, Joan, Barbara and Vera and his brothers George and Ken and went off to join The Buffs in Canterbury in May 1942.
After completing his training in England he was posted to the Western Desert Theatre of War and saw action in and around Tunisia until the Axis forces capitulated in mid May 1943. The Royal East Kents then started retraining for what was to become the invasion of Sicily in July 1943. During training for this Robert and five of his comrades were fatally wounded by a prematurely exploding mortar round.
As we have seen, and will continue to see, accidents during wartime claim many, many lives. As the letter to the family from Robert’s Commanding Officer put it, “It seems an even more terrible waste of life when a soldier is not killed in action but rather as a result of an accident such as this.”
Private Robert William Butcher died aged just 19 on the 19th June 1943 and is buried with his comrades in the Bone War Cemetery, Annaba, Algeria.
He is remembered with pride by his family and by members of this community. His name is inscribed on the Staple War Memorial and also on the Canterbury Memorial outside the Cathedral.
This picture of Robert's grave was found on The War Graves Photographic Project
