Barwick in Elmet & Scholes War Memorials Web Site

Austin Backhurst

Unit	No. 7263979, 133 (Parachute) Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps
How & When Died	Died, 8 July 1945
Age, if known	26 years
Next of Kin details	Son of Gordon and Ethel Backhurst; Husband of Cecilia Backhurst of Barwick in Elmet, Leeds.
Commemoration Details	Buried in All Saints' Churchyard, Barwick in Elmet, Leeds. Section L, Grave 11.
Other Information / Remarks	Austin Backhurst was a medic at the battle for the bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem in Holland. He was captured by the Germans when the British forces were pulled out of the town after the failure of XXX Corps to make contact with the forces in Arnhem town. L/Cpl Backhurst spent the rest of the war in captivity as a Prisoner of War. Repatriated to the UK after the surrender of Germany he fell ill and died at Seacroft Hospital from meningitis which an inquest heard he had contracted in the prison camp. A Hull man, he married Cecilia Poulter of Barwick immediately prior to him going to Arnhem, and they had an address in Chapel Lane. Austin Backhouse was a Regular Soldier with nine years service at the time of his death.
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