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War Memorial
Tollerton Village War Memorial is situated on Tollerton Lane, opposite St. Peter's Church. The details below were compiled by Hilary Heason with the help of Mr. Blackburn (Snr). Information was also gained from the Commonwealth War Graves commission and other websites. They were published in the Tollerton Village Newsletter in July 2002.
The Great War 1914-18
The names of those who died in the Great War, carved on the monument are:
Gunner George Henry Sweet, Private John Edward Lane, and Sergeant George Brain.
Gunner Sweet of the Royal Field Artillery was born in 1897 and was the son of Charles and Emma Sweet who lived in the cottage which is at the back of Tollerton Hall, now Bankharts. His father was the coachman at Tollerton Hall (Bankharts). He was 19 years of age when he was wounded, from which he subsequently died, in one of the many battles fought around the Somme in 1916 and is buried in Tollerton churchyard.
John Edward Lane was a Private in the 16th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby regiment) and was the son of Thomas and Sarah Lane, Glebe Cottages, Tollerton. Both Thomas and John were recorded in the 1901 census as agricultural labourers. John later married Mary and lived in Plumtree. He was killed at Bulgar Wood in Belgium in an offensive agaisnt the German lines during the third battle of Ypres in 1917. his name appears on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the missing at Zonnebeke, West Vlannnderten, Belgium.
George Brain lived in what was Forge Cottage on Tollerton Lane and his name appears on the Arras Memorial in the Fauborg d'Amiens cemetery. He was a corporal in the 10th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby) regiment and tool part in the Arras offensives when the germans attacked in the spring of 1918. Both sides suffered great losses but the German offensive was halted.
The War 1939-45
The names of those who died in the second World War, carved on the monument are Lance.Cpl. Joseph Hackett, Lieut. Geoffrey Raynor, Cpl. William Randall Foster, Bdr. E. Geoffrey Chambers.
Lance Corporal Joseph Freitas Guimarães Hackett of the 105 Provost Coy., Corps of Military Police apparently was caught up in the German invasion of Boulogne in May 1940, which was being used as an allied hospital base, he died on 20 may 1940 and is remembered at the Boulogne Eastern cemetery, Pas de Calais.
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Joseph Freitas Guimareas is my uncle. The family story is that he was escorting a Red Cross ambulance which was shot up by the enemy. He was the youngest of 3 children and only son.
His father , also Joseph Freitas Guimareas served in the First World War, rising to Captain, and as a Major in the Home Guard in the Second World War.
"Hackett" has got attached as a surname when Joseph Snr was serving in the First World War, it being the name of his stepfather. We do not know if it was adopted because the recruiting sergeant thought Guimaraes too difficult or too foreign, or if my grandfather used it to hide the fact that he had joined under age, been thrown out, and then re-joined at the appropriate age. My grandparents lived in Tollerton until their deaths.
Josephine Manuela Guimareas Lawlor May 2006
Bristol
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Geoffrey Raynor was a Lieutenant (A) HMS Kestrel, Royal Naval Volunteer reserve was apparently a native of Barnsley and was married to Jean Raynor and they lived in Tollerton. He is buried in Barnsley cemetery, Yorkshire. HMS Kestrel was a Royal Naval Air Sation at Worthy Down between 1942 and 1944. It was the ship that Lord Haw Haw proudly reported has been sunk by the Germans.
Willan Alfred Randale Foster, aged 29 years, was an Aircraftsman 1st class with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. He was married and lived on Medina Drive Tollerton before joining up shortly after the war started. He was sent out to the Far East where he was later posted missing. The Kranji War cemetery (Singapore Memorial) where he is honoured was an area which was overrun by the Japanese in 1942 and where they established a prisoner of war camp.
Arthur Geoffrey Chambers was a lance bombadier of the 107 (The South Notts Hussars) regiment, Royal Horse Artillary. He was the first son of George and Agnes Chambers who were farmers of Tollerton. He was captured at Tobruck and was a prisoner of was held in Italy until the armistice agreement in 1943 when he escaped and lived with Italian partisans fighting the Germans for about a year in the North around Padua. Unfortunately the fleeing Germans surrounded the area and killed everybody including Geoffrey. He died on 27 September 1944 and is remembered in Padua war cemetery, Italy.
 A new information plaque has been added to the Tollerton War memorial. You can view the image of the plaque - but better still, why not visit and read it yourself.
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