44th Royal Tank Regiment, Royal Armoured Corp, Service no. 7902176
Born: 1919. Killed in action: 25th March 1945, aged 25
Story
Maurice was the son of Herbert Colley (1890-1976) and Mary Elizabeth Balmforth (1892-1986). Herbert fought in the First World War, and carried a shoulder injury from 1915. His son was named Maurice in memory of his brother who was killed in the First World War. Mary also lost two brothers in the First World War, and her first husband Ernest Howley. She re-married Herbert in 1918. Mary also lost her youngest brother Ernest Balmforth in the Second World War.
On 26th February 1943, it was reported that Corporal Maurice Colley had met another Kippax soldier Leonard Ingle in the Middle East. Whilst on leave in 1944, Maurice married Ivy Turner in Kippax.
The 44th Royal Tank Regiment (pictured above in 1940) was a front-line unit, and took part in the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and the push up the Adriatic coast in Italy in late 1943. They landed at Anblie, Normandy in June 1944 (D Day + 3), and they were then involved in heavy fighting around Caen; and then in northern France, Belgium, and Holland – including being part of Operation Market Garden in September 1944, under the 101st US Airbourne Division. On the 24 March 1945 they were among the first tanks to cross the Rhine, at Xanten, and Maurice was injured, and died the following day. He is buried in the Eindhoven (Woensel) General Cemetery, Plot RR. Grave 49 (below):
On 29th August 1969 it was reported below that Herbert and Mary had been passed photographs of Maurice’s grave, which they had never seen, after it was discovered by chance:
Kippax Roll of Honour 