Roll of Honour

It is with much sadness that the Arnhem Veterans Club and the Arnhem 1944 Fellowship announce the death of Harold Padfield aged 93 on 13th December 2014.

Harold was born in Holcombe, Somerset on 12th October 1921 and was the eldest of four children. His father was a coal miner and during the General Strike of 1926 he found work at Tilmanstone Colliery in Kent and the family uprooted from Somerset to Kent. Here he spent his formative years but in keeping with so many young people in the 1930's soon had to find a job and in 1936 he found his first job as a gardener on Lord Guildford's Estate. But Harold felt a gardening job was not for him and in 1936 took and passed the tests to join the Royal Engineers as a bugler. So in September 1936 Harold reported to the RE Barracks at Chatham — the start of a long association with that Corps. By the time he reached 18 Harold passed into adult service and started to be trained as a fitter. After the war broke out in 1939 he served in a number of various units until soon after his 21st birthday in 1942 he volunteered for airborne forces and passed the necessary tests, went to RAF Ringway and won his wings and red beret.

The 1st Parachute Brigade held the north end of the bridge only making it difficult to search it for explosive charges. Consequently it was decided to occupy the north end of the bridge area and Harold was sent by Lieutenant Simpson to search some large buildings close to the road which ran over the bridge but on the east side. These turned out to be some school buildings which became central to Harold's Arnhem experiences.

The building was the van Limburg Stirum School and held a commanding position covering the north end of the bridge and the approaches to it from the south and east. The engineers were destined to spend the rest of their time at Arnhem here defending the school house against many attacks with nothing bigger than a bren gun. The building was held until the morning of 20th September when German tanks started to blast it to rubble and the defenders were running out of ammunition.

There were many instances of bravery that Harold was involved with here and have been covered in publications that he helped with or even wrote himself. However, once incident that affected Harold deeply is as follows: with ammunition virtually exhausted and the building in ruins the orders came to cease firing and surrender. On Harold's instructions Sapper Butterworth put a white handkerchief on the end of his rifle and went forward waving it. As he was walking forward a German opened fire and shot him in the legs. A German officer who witnessed this incident shot the soldier who had opened fire. This officer told the engineers to come forward saying, 'You are very brave but very foolish.' Harold said he considered they were unfortunate. Sadly Norman Butterworth died from the wounds he suffered as a result of this incident in February 1945.

As some of the defenders including Harold were marched off to a builders yard in eastern Arnhem to be searched a German Propaganda Kompanie photographer took several photographs of which Harold is the star in a couple and one of these is currently displayed life size in the Airborne Museum Hartenstein in Oosterbeek. Harold spent the rest of the war in captivity at camps Stalag 12A and 18C, he walked out of the camp in late April 1945 and spent two weeks in the Austrian Alps trying to reach Allied lines. He eventually achieved this on the day the Germans officially surrendered, but he was 4 stones lighter than when he left the UK in September 1944. Harold returned to the UK and after some leave resumed his career in the Army finishing up as RSM of 107th Field Regiment RE in Liverpool, retiring after 27 years' service in 1963.

However an idle life was not for Harold and he started work as Estate Foreman at St John's College in Oxford in October 1963, he remained here in a number of different jobs but each with more responsibility till retiring again in 1986 when he was 65.

Sadly after this Harold's eyesight continued to deteriorate but in true airborne style he fought as best as he could and then in early 2014 he was dealt another body blow by being diagnosed with cancer. Perhaps he fulfilled a last wish by laying flowers with the 'flower children' at the end of the Commemorative Service in the Cemetery at Oosterbeek in September 2014. Harold was admitted to a care home and sadly died on 13th December 2014. His last wish was for his ashes to be buried behind Norman Butterworth's grave and the CWGC have already agreed to this.

Our thoughts and sympathies go out to this son and family at this sad loss. I have also lost an airborne brother and I shall miss him tremendously. As John Frost said of the airborne engineers at the road bridge, "They are far better at killing the Germans than engineering tasks"!