Service number: 5781094 | Rank: Lance Corporal | Regiment: 1st Battalion, Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry
Died, February 17, 1945.
Buried at REICHSWALD FOREST WAR CEMETERY, Germany. 45. C. 3.
Aged 32. Son of Ernest George and May Scurrell, of Ipswich, Suffolk; husband of Ada Scurrell, of Ipswich.
WHAT I KNOW ABOUT CYRIL …
Not much is known about Cyril Scurrell, although it appears he was born in Ipswich, Suffolk. Newspaper reports from the late 1930’s tell of a Cyril Scurrell, a very accomplished pianist, living in Newtown in Thetford. There is also a suggestion he was manager of Potter & Moss, wine and spirit merchant, on Brandon’s High Street and that his next of kin, his wife, was living there during the war.
What is known is that Cyril was killed during ‘Operation Veritable’, part of the assault on the Rhine. Cyril’s battalion were involved in the Battle of the Reichswald. Against Cyril’s battalion were German paratroopers and armoured units, resulting in vicious fighting around the village of Asperberg. It is likely that Cyril was killed here and buried close by. His body was later exhumed and re-buried on 23rd September 1946, in Reichwald Forest War Cemetery. His headstone reads,
“Sacred to the memory
Of Cyril,
A beloved husband and son,
“Love is of God””
His wife, who after the war returned to Ipswich, seems to have been devastated by her husband’s death. During the years following the end of war she kept his memory alive in the Bury Free Press …
