When researching the grave of David O’Connell, I looked up his record on the CWGC site for information about his burial site and whether his body had perhaps been relocated to Schoonselhof. As is so often the way with research, something else eye-catching turned up at the same time.
On the Graves Registration Form, above David’s name, there appear four members of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, all killed at the same time on 20 January 1945, the day before David. They were Frederick John Warner (25 years old), Robert William Chatten (31 years old), William Hodge (33 years old), and Charles William Espin (20 years old). All were Privates.
What was the story behind this sad loss of what must have been a unit of non-combatant veterinary staff?
WAR STORIES 
I was researching R W Chatten, did you find anything of this incident ?
Unfortunately not. Would be interested to hear more about R W Chatten. If you do not want to share it here, I can contact you via your email address.
There were two V2 flying bomb impacts in the Antwerp area that day, one in the harbour (14h27) (around dock 28) and another in Vrijheidsstraat (21h25).
Maybe the best way would be to check the war diary of the unit for that day. Sometimes these were mentioned.
If you have any pictures of these soldiers, it would help me too, as I am searching the pictures of all allied soldiers buried at Schoonselhof cemetery.
Niko.
Hi Niko – Sorry, I don’t have any pictures, I wish I had, only the picture of the grave. Thank you for the info about the V2 incidents – it sounds very likely that may have been the cause of death, sadly they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Best wishes – Jennie