2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry

[Helen G]

Just wondering if anyone was researching or who had ancestors in the 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry during WW2?

My Grandfather, who was born in Studley in 1909, was a member of the 2nd Derbyshire Yeomany and served in Egypt 1942-1943. I have been researching his Egyptian experience and even visited El Alamein last year but it is a lonely life as I have been unable to find anyone else who has an interest in the same regiment. Indeed, the books I have accessed about the 8th Army/Desert rats etc don't mention the 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry at all. If it wasn't for me having accessed the regiments War Diaries at the National Archives I would be beginning to doubt my Gramps stories.

Tell me I am not alone?
ps I realise it's not really in the Brum area

 

[Pedrocut]

There are mentions of the regiment. It may help if you give your grandfather’s name as he may be mentioned in despatches.

 

[Pedrocut]

You are not alone, see this letter from the Ashbourne Telegraph in November 1943.

 

[Helen G]

There are mentions of the regiment. It may help if you give your grandfather’s name as he may be mentioned in despatches.

My Grandfather was Lawrence Cleeve Crow, I would be surprised if he ever got mentioned in dispatches. Having read the War Diaries of the Derbyshire Yeomanry from 1939-43 (I am going back to the National Archives next month to read the rest) he never got a mention there. It just seems odd that lots of other regiments are mentioned in books about the African campaign but I have never come across a mention of the 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry and I know, from the war Diaries that they definitely did their bit.

 

[Pedrocut]

For those who may be interested…
“The Derbyshire Yeomanry, with the The Hussars, were the first to enter Tunis in May 1943. They arrived in N. Africa with the First Army in November 1942…conspicuous gallantry in a brilliant. North African triumph… Reuters special correspondent at Allied HQ states that the DY is the only unit of the Allied Forces which has had unbroken contact with the enemy since the Tunisian began…”

(Derbyshire Evening Telegraph, May 1943)