Lance-Corporal William Loney

935393 Lance-Corporal William Loney, "C" Company, 2nd Parachute Battalion; born on the 25th July 1918, in Westtown Dewsbury, Yorkshire, the son of William Lionel and Mary Ellen Loney. He was educated at St Paulinus Roman Catholic School in Dewsbury, and in his spare time enjoyed playing football. Before being called up he worked as a dyer’s labourer at Newsome and Spedding Ltd (woollen manufacturers) in Adams Mill, Dewsbury. He joined "C" Company in 1942, serving with them in North Africa and Italy, and being promoted to Lance-Corporal in 1944. William Loney was killed on the 17th September 1944, as "C" Company were making their way along the Utrechtsestraat towards Arnhem bridge. He and Private Norman Shipley were cautiously scouting ahead of the Company when they were both hit and killed by machine-gun fire. He was buried in a grave marked as an unidentified Lance-Corporal of the Parachute Regiment, and was commemorated on the Groesbeek Memorial, however research undertaken over a number of years by Staff Sergeant Patric van Aalderen of the Recovery and Identification Service of the Royal Netherlands Army successfully identified his remains in 2015, and a rededication service took place at the Airborne Cemetery in 2017.