H.S. EMERSON

Henry Stuart Emerson was born at 8 Seymour Villas, Seymour Park, Plymouth on the 27 October 1920. He was the youngest of three boys born to Thomas William and Victoria Elsie (nee Heard) Emerson. The family soon moved to Collismoer, Golf Links Road, Yelverton where Henry grew up.

His first taste of school was at Ravenscroft Prep School, Yelverton (commandeered during the war by the RAF and now a Nursing Home). He then went to Kelly College, Tavistock, in 1934 where he was also confirmed. After leaving in 1937 he joined his father’s firm of solicitors as an articled pupil. At the outbreak of war he joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers as a Lieutenant (198200).

His name appears on a list of SOE personnel and the National Archives at Kew has a closed file on him & other operatives not to be released until 2024 as it contains “sensitive personal information which would substantially distress or endanger a living person or his or her descendants”.

In 1944 he was attached to the 2nd/4th Bn. Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in Italy. His death is a mystery and official records merely state that on Wednesday 20 September 1944 Henry Emerson died of wounds, aged 23.

He is buried in the Gradara War Cemetery, Pesaro, Italy in plot II, B, 62. He is also commemorated on the Buckland war memorial, Crapstone, on the memorial board at Kelly College and on a framed parchment in Yelverton Church.