BUCKETT, Douglas Alan

Douglas was born 1922 in Newport to William Henry & Grace Agnes (nee BAKER) BUCKETT of 9 Cavendish Place Newport.

Douglas, aged 21, Died of Wounds on the 4th of December 1943 & was originally buried on the battlefield close to where he fell. His body was exhumed, identified from his Identity Disc, & reburied in the Sangro River Cemetery in Italy on the 13th July 1944 by soldiers of Section 3 of the 31st Graves Unit.

Douglas is buried beneath a Commission Headstone bearing the family inscription: “SAFE IN GOD'S KEEPING TILL WE MEET AGAIN” with 2,545 of his comrades.

The site of this cemetery was selected by the 5th Corps & into it were brought the graves of men who had died in the fierce fighting on the Adriatic sector of the front in November-December 1943, & during the static period that followed. In addition, the cemetery contains the graves of a number of escaped prisoners of war who died while trying to reach the Allied lines

Douglas is also remembered on the Newport Borough War Memorial. His brother Gordon also served in the same regiment & was killed in Libya in 1941, also 21.