A corner of a Hampshire quay that is forever Essex

Lymington's tribute to the Essex soldiers who left for Normandy 80 years ago

Essex soldiers who helped liberate Europe during World War Two are being remembered in a Hampshire coastal town.

The 2nd Battalion of the Essex Regiment took part in the D-Day landings - Operation Overlord - in Normandy, France, on 6 June 1944.

Servicemen from the battalion began their voyage to France at Lymington near Southampton.

Their role is commemorated on a plague on Lymington Quay.

Jacqui England (left) with Maj Robert Filby (right) at an earlier memorial service in Lymington

Lymington shopkeeper and councillor Jacqui England said she would lay wreathes and pay tribute on Thursday 6 June, as part of nationwide commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

Miss England, whose grandfather Walter England served in World War One, was a driving force behind the installation of the Lymington Rotary Club Blue Plaque which commemorates the battalion.

Maj Robert Filby, a 2nd Battalion veteran who sailed from Lymington in 1944 - and died in 2018 aged 94, unveiled the plaque a decade ago.

'Recognise'

Miss England, an Independent member of New Forest District Council, said she had no direct connection with Essex but felt that Lymington should remember the 2nd Battalion.

"When I learned that they had sailed from Lymington, I felt what they did could not go unrecognised," she said.

"We are lucky to live in a free country and that's thanks to people like this.

"You always wonder what would have happened to the ones who died."

Miss England added: "I always told Maj Filby that whilst I was able I would recognise the Essex Regiment for their service."

She said she first laid a wreath in commemoration in 2014 when an Independent Hampshire County Councillor.

Miss England said she laid wreaths as a "councillor and resident".

Modern-day Lymington: the 2nd Battalion of the Essex Regiment sailed to France from Lymington as part of Operation Overlord

A National Army Museum website explains how the Essex Regiment was formed in 1881, served with the British Army until 1958, and was then merged into the 3rd East Anglian Regiment.

Soldiers were based at Warley Barracks near Brentwood.

The 2nd Battalion was in England at the outbreak of the World War One and served on the Western Front from August 1914 until the Armistice in November 1918.

• World War Two

• The biggest seaborne invasion

• What was D-Day?

• What happened during the landings?

During World War Two, battalion soldiers served in France in 1939-40, before being evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940.

They remained in Britain until June 1944, when the battalion landed on Gold Beach in Normandy.

A Normandy War Guide says the battalion left Lymington for nearby Southampton on 3 June, before heading to Normandy.

Soldiers landed near Le Hamel on 6 June and began to move inland.

Jacqui England will pay tribute to the Essex soldiers who sailed from Lymington in June 1944

Lymington was a naval base during World War Two.

Miss England said parents, Kathleen and Seymour, lived near Lymington Quay, during the1939 - 1945 war.

She said her mother recalled sailors based in the town dropping into the house and jitterbug dancing.

Miss England said both her parents, who are now dead, were in reserved occupations during the war.

She said her mother, who grew up in Belfast, was an engineer and her father a boat-builder.