Remembrance Sunday: Roade brothers killed in World War Two honoured in play

Tom, left, William, centre, and Jack Every all died fighting in World War Two

The story of three brothers who died in World War Two is to be performed on Remembrance Sunday for the first time.

The Every Brothers, based on the lives of Tom, Jack and William Every, is being staged at Northampton's Deco Theatre.

The play was written by Ron Johnson, from Roade Local History Society, who spotted the trio's names on the village's war memorial.

Director Jay Lucas said it was a "powerful piece".

The play has been structured around a narrator and acts out events in the home life and military careers of the Everys, a London family that was evacuated to Roade during the war.

The brothers are remembered on the war memorial in Roade, a village south of Northampton

It was first staged on 9 November 2019 at the Elizabeth Woodville School in the village.

Tom, Jack and William were three of five brothers. One died in infancy, leaving only their younger brother Frankie to survive the war.

Jack, the youngest of the three, was the first to be killed. He was aged just 22 when he died in the Tunisian desert on 29 March 1943.

William was 23 when he was killed at Monte Cassino in Italy on 26 May 1944.

Perhaps most tragically, Tom, who was 25, died on 22 August 1944 during an allied aerial bombardment on the Heydebreck prisoner of war camp in Upper Silesia, Poland, run by the occupying Germans.

Mr Johnson said he had based the play on a "veritable treasure trove" of information found in letters sent home by the soldiers, including from a prisoner of war camp.

He also used their Army pay books, photographs of the family and even press cuttings to help capture their lives.

"All three brothers died within months of each other and in different theatres of war," he said.

The Every Brothers will be performed at The Deco in Northampton on Remembrance Sunday

Mr Lucas, who also performs in the play, said the cast has "a great deal of respect" for those who fought in World War Two.

"That reverence hopefully runs throughout the play," he said.

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The Reverend Mandy Marriot, who is the Vicar of Duston and acts in the play as the voice of the letters, said the Everys' story had had an impact on how she approached Remembrance Day.

"When I look at the names on our war memorial in Duston, it helps me to think that they aren't just names," she said.

"They were people who had mums and dads, and brothers and sisters.

"They had real stories."