Kenneth Roy Johnson

This story and photos are shared by the Trust with kind permission from Mike Johnson and Janette Panter, nephew and niece of Kenneth Roy Johnson.

Remembering Kenneth Roy Johnson, Leading Motor Mechanic – killed as a result of enemy action on D-Day.

Ken was born on 31st July 1924. He lived in Raunds in East Northamptonshire. This means that he was 19 years old at the time of his death – not 20. It is assumed that he lied about his age on signing up.

He was the son of Alfred Sydney (Trimmer in a local boot factory) and Ethel Jane Johnson (unpaid domestic duties) of Chelveston Road in Raunds. He had two brothers:
Sydney (our father)– born 1st December 1918 – at the time of the 1939 register he was employed in a local boot/shoe factory. He later spent much of the war as a civilian aircraft mechanic based at the Maintenance Unit at RAF Dumfries - and Cyril, who was a career soldier before and during the war. He also had two sisters - Jean and Edna.

He was educated at the Raunds Council School. It was said that “Kenny” as he was known, was refused entry into the ATC because of his reputation as a “mischief maker”. He was employed, as numerous local Northamptonshire lads were before and during the war, at a local boot/shoe factory. He worked in the lasting room. He had also apparently been employed at the Higham Ferres Co-operative society.

Our information is that he joined the Royal Navy in the latter half of 1942. We have some images of Ken, and his crew mates on his LCT.

Ken standing in the back row, third from the left

 

Ken, standing bottom centre

 

Ken standing in the back row, second from the right

 

We also have a photo of his LCT heading onto Juno beach which was taken from another LCT

LCT 574, Juno beach

 

We are not sure where he actually died or what happened to his body. The log of his LCT states that, as a result of the bomb dropped by an FW190, 2 men were sent to a field hospital on shore, but the log of his LCT states that at 12.10hrs on 7th June a service was held for the men (some sources suggest that one man was buried at sea but I am sure that the log says men) buried at sea.

He is remembered on the Roll of Honour in St Laurence Church in Stanwick (the next village to his home town) and on the War Memorial at St Peters Church in Raunds. The reason for this is that his home address, although closer to Raunds was actually within the Stanwick Parish boundary.

I was invited by the organising committee for the Raunds 80th Anniversary of D Day commemoration in June 2024 to give a short talk about Uncle Ken as he was the only man from Raunds killed on D-Day.

Until relatively recently we had been led to believe that Ken had been killed by “friendly fire” when he had gone ashore on Juno beach, but we now believe that he was killed or fatally injured by a bomb blast while on board LCT 574.