One Old Shirburnian named on the new British Normandy Memorial overlooking Gold Beach is Lieutenant Theodore Ambrose Wentworth Austin (Lyon 37-41).
The British Normandy Memorial was unveiled on 6 June 2021 – the 77th anniversary of Lieutenant Austin’s death during the Normandy Airborne landings on D-Day.
The memorial, designed by British architect Liam O’Connor, consists of 160 stone columns inscribed with the names of the 22,442 people who were killed on D-Day and during the Battle of Normandy.
The memorial also includes a bronze sculpture of three charging infantrymen by British sculptor David Williams-Ellis, who has also created a bronze bust of Alan Turing that will shortly go on display at Sherborne School.
Having first joined the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, in 1944 Lieutenant Austin transferred to the 12th (Yorkshire) Parachute Battalion. During the Normandy Airborne landings on D-Day, the 12th Battalion was tasked with capturing the village of Ranville (Calvados), with troops landing by glider and parachuting into the area. Lieutenant Austin was reported missing soon after the drop, along with three other officers and a hundred of other ranks. He was aged just 20.
Lieutenant Austin’s obituary in The Shirburnian reported that “He was dropped ‘on the bridge’ on D-Day and has not been seen or heard of since. There can be no real hope of his survival. During his short life he showed a courage and an outlook on life which will be an abiding example to his friends.”
Lieutenant Austin has no known place of burial and is commemorated on the Bayeux Memorial to the Missing at Calvados, and also at Sherborne School on the War Memorial Staircase, in the Book of Remembrance, and on the Lyon House War Memorial.
Find out more about the Normandy Memorial Trust and the Roll of Honour and Sherborne School and the Second World War.
Posted 7 June 2021 by Sherborne School Archives.
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