Sudbury at War

No Glorious Dead tells how Sudbury and its neighbourhood fought on the battle fields and the home front in the two World Wars and counts the human and economic cost. Published by the Sudbury Museum Trust with a foreword by Ronald Blythe, it has 240 illustrations and gives details of the 300 named on the town war memorial as well as naming more than 200 of the young Americans who died serving with the USAAF 486th Bomb Group.

Even before Sudbury’s latest history book was published two contributors had died, a lesson, if one is needed, that mid-20th century memories should be recorded without delay.

Heather Bell, who had been a member of the Society from its inception, solved a puzzle for the authors of No Glorious Dead: the impact of war on Sudbury - a Suffolk market town who had been unable to find a local connection for a Lance Corporal in the ATS buried in the town cemetery with a Commonwealth Graves Commission headstone.

At 85 Heather's memories went back a long way and she remembered Priscilla Carter as a friend in the 1920s when they were both at Mill Lane School. Priscilla had moved away during her schooldays but for some reason she was buried in Sudbury after she was killed in a road accident. She died of head injuries, when the military vehicle she was driving overturned. She was only 20. Heather’s memories of her school friend established Priscilla’s link with Sudbury that had been lost in the passage of time.

Heather Bell died a few months after she provided the information to Valerie Herbert, another Sudbury History Society member who co-wrote the book with family historian Shirley Smith. Roley Andrews, historian of the USAAF 486th Bomb Group stationed at Chilton airfield during WWII, died just as the book went to the printers.

Stockists of the £14.95 book include:-

Kestrel Bookshop in Friar Street;
Tourist Information Centre in Sudbury (01787 881320) who will also post books to UK addresses;
Independent booksellers in Long Melford and Lavenham.

Please note - all the proceeds are in aid of the Sudbury branch of the Royal British Legion and the Sudbury Museum Trust