Joseph Harrison HENDERSON 1924 – 1947

14629680 Lance Corporal Joseph Harrison Henderson, 7th Armoured Divisional Provost Company, Corps of Military Police died 19 May 1947 aged 21.  He is buried at grave reference 3.A. 13, Munster Heath War Cemetery, Munster, Germany. [1]

Family Details

Joseph H. was born 1924,[2] the son of Joseph and Ellen Henderson of West Auckland.  In 1939, Joseph senior lived at East View, West Auckland with his daughter Ellen [and another?].  He worked as a colliery hewer.  Joseph H. [junior] is not recorded.[3]

Service Details

The service details of Lance Corporal Joseph Henderson have not been researched.  It is understood that after the war he was not demobilized and joined the Military Police.  He was employed as a driver to military personnel attending the Nuremburg war trails.  His vehicle was involved in a road traffic accident and he suffered fatal injuries.  Further information will be provided in due course.

L/C Henderson is in the middle of the 3 soldiers.  Note the censor has been at work – the registration plate and sign to the building have both been erased.

Burial [4]

Lance Corporal J.H. Henderson is buried at grave reference 3.A.13, Munster War Cemetery.  Joseph’s headstone bears the epitaph:

Sleep on, dear son,

Free from pain.

We would not wake you

To suffer again   

There 588 burials of the Second World War and 277 post war graves.  Munster Heath was on the line of the Allied advance across northern Germany in 1945 but the majority of those buried in the cemetery died while serving with the Army of Occupation after the German surrender.

Commemoration

Lance Corporal is not commemorated on the West Auckland war memorial.

Thanks to Dorothy Bainbridge, Joseph’s niece.

REFERENCES

[1] Commonwealth War Graves Commission.  He may have been 22 years old.

[2] England & Wales Birth Index 1916-2007 Vol.10a p.505 1924Q3 Auckland

[3] 1939 England & Wales Register

[4] CWGC