David Lovat Barclay

This story is shared with the Trust with kind permission from Mavis Williams, Researcher. Photo source: Family Tree of Gordon David MacDougall, Ancestry

David Lovat Barclay was the youngest child of 10 children of Clifford & Mary Rosamund Barclay, he had been born in the September quarter of 1920 in the Hamstead Registration District. Clifford Barclay & Mary Rosamund Veale had been married in 1896 in the West Derby Registration District, Lancashire.

The 1911 census shows the family living at 26, Willowbank Road, Birkenhead, Merseyside. Clifford Barclay was working as a Mechanical Engineer on his own account. By 1921 the family had moved to London and we see David Barclay for the first time on the 1921 census, which was taken on the 19th of June 1921, living at 66, Goldhurst Terrace, Hampstead, London

David Barclay was educated at Sedbergh School and he enlisted in the Royal Navy after leaving school. In Navy List of 1938 he is recorded as being a Probationary Second Lieutenant in the Royal Marines, based at Chatham from 1 September.

We see his bride to be, Daphne J. Lawson, living at 31 Tilehurst Road, Earlsfield, London on the 1939 National Register, which was taken on the 29th of September 1939. She was living with her father Charles A. Lawson an Electrical Engineer and her mother Fannie A. Lawson; Daphne herself had been born on the 5th of November 1918 and was a Bank Clerk.

David took part in many actions during the war. The first was at the Hook of Holland in June 1940 followed very shortly by involvement at in the evacuations of allied troops from Dunkirk. After that, he spent some time at sea, serving on HMS Norfolk for two years. In May 1941, Norfolk was the second ship to sight the Bismark. She continued to follow the German battleship and was part of the force with HMS Rodney and HMS King George V that sank her.

When the Royal Marine Commando was formed he became its adjutant, serving first with 40 (RM) Commando before transferring to 41 (RM) Commando. He took part in the raid on Dieppe and then served with them in the Mediterranean theatre when he took part in the landings in Sicily and the Italian mainland. In December 1943 he was promoted to Major and served as second-in-command of his unit. He was believed to be the youngest regular Royal Marine officer to attain that rank.

He returned to the UK for the D-Day landings. 41 (Royal Marine) Commando embarked from Warsash, Hampshire on the afternoon of 5 June 1944 and landed on Sword Beach on D-Day. The war diary for 41 RM Commando records that he had been killed at some point on landing. He has no known grave so he is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial to the Missing.

The report of his death was published in the Surrey Advertiser of 8th July 1944. It said, "He was beloved by his men and many letters have been received by his parents from fellow offocers and men, testifying to his fine character and ideals for a better world. He has indeed paved the way to enable others to build."

Daphne was to marry again after David's death to a John Bradbury in the December quarter of 1949 in the Croydon Registration District.