Richard’s story as told to a Crewe Town Councillor
Simon Yates, at the time of writing (2024) is a Councillor on Crewe Town Council. He was Leader of Crewe Town Council between 2015 and 2019.
Simon Yates writes > Shortly after the 80th Commemoration of D-Day, my wife Diane and I visited the Normandy beaches to see where her dad landed on D-Day+2 (Sword Beach).
Prior to going, I researched whether anybody from our town, Crewe, died on D-Day and I discovered Robert Parr. On return home I started to look at his history and discovered that he was with GCI 15082 and died on Omaha Beach. I contacted a retired USAF Colonel friend of mine who lives in Crewe in Virginia, USA to let him know about the coincidence that an RAF guy from Crewe had died assisting the Americans. Because of the common interest in Crewe UK and Crewe Virginia, I am writing a short piece about LAC Parr and would be grateful if you could let me have any information you have about his Service Record and about how he died.
David Heathcote (Editor) writes > There is quite a bit of information about LAC Richard – not Robert (that’s an error in some published documents) – “Dickie” Croxton Parr on The RAF at Omaha Beach website. My father, Eric Heathcote, was good mates with Richard and was dug in, in the next trench when Richard was killed on Omaha Beach by shrapnel: he was struck on the back of the head and died instantly. If you read my mother’s account on my father’s Page, she relates the story as told to her; Dad visited Richard’s parents in Crewe after the War ended and paid his respects.
There are photos of Richard’s first grave, and his final grave in Bayeux on the website – take a look in the News section: a contributor visited Bayeux War Cemetery and took photos of the graves of all from GCI 15082 who were killed. There is also BBC footage of Bayeux Cemetery at night. And Richard’s name is inscribed on the stone in the British Normandy Memorial.
Richard’s Service number is 1527578, as recorded on his headstone, but I have not seen a copy of his Service record.
Richard features in the MyHeritage Family Tree owned and run by Karen Devlin. We have reached out to Karen via the MyHeritage website, but she has not as yet replied.
Richard lived with his parents at 17 Collins Street, Crewe at the time of the 1939 Register.
Simon Yates continues > Many, many thanks David for getting back to me. Thanks for correcting me on the name. I am glad you saw the photos we took of Diane (his wife and former Mayor of Crewe – Editor) laying the wreath at Bayeux, and am so grateful for the additional information you have given me, because until our visit to Normandy I was not aware of Richard Parr and this is something I want to do something about.
We are fortunate in having military historians, Mark Potts and Tony Marks, in Crewe who have published several works about the men from Crewe and Nantwich who lost their lives or survived the two World Wars.
I have put together a document about Richard to raise his profile and tell his story locally. I am fortunate to be a Town Councillor, and will use that role to make Richard’s service and sacrifice known; we need to build it into the history of Crewe. I have shared what I know with Mark, our wartime historian; he now knows about Richard and is trying to uncover more information about him. Mark is working with the Heritage Officer at Crewe Town Council to prepare for the 80th Anniversary of the End of the War by writing the stories about the Crewe guys who took part.