DEAN Geoffrey Campbell

A letter from the Reverend R.W. Underhill, Tardebigge, undated, can be found within war records held at Worcestershire Archives requesting that Trooper Geoffrey Campbell Dean be added to the county roll of honour.

The following information has been researched by John Barry:
1939 Register
31 Brookfield Drive, Altrincham
Edith Dean, born 9th May 1895, Unpaid Domestic Duties
Margaret L. Dean, born 30th September 1918, Milliners Showroom Assistant
Geoffrey C. Dean, born 11th October 1924, Wholesale Clothing Warehouse Assistant

The Army Roll of Honour records Geoffrey Campbell as born Leeds, resident Yorkshire.

Yorkshire Post, 1944:
Missing
Dean – In June, reported “missing believed killed” aged 19 Trooper Geoffrey Campbell Dean, of the Royal Armoured Corps, elder son of Major L. Dean, Royal Tank Regiment, and Edith Dean, late of Horsforth and Catterick, Yorks, brother of Margaret, Valerie, Graham and Gillian, and beloved of them all.

Details of Geoffrey Dean’s death taken from the 24th Lancers Regimental History by Willis:
Geoffrey was the co-driver/hull gunner in the Sherman tank of Sgt Bartlett of A Squadron. On the 2nd day of Operation Martelet he was ordered to patrol south of Fontenay le Pesnel on the D127 and cover the Vendes-Tessel crossroads. At 1000 am, 50 yards short of the crossroads, they spotted a Panther tank moving across their right front which they engaged and knocked out with 2 shots. Moments later, and unnoticed by them due to the thick hedgerows another Panther was approaching from the same direction. Warned by the tank behind them of its approach at 3 o’clock no sooner had they managed to get off a shot than their tank was hit twice, and the tank burst into flames. The turret crew managed to escape but Tpr Dean and the driver Tpr William Heath were both killed. Sgt Bartlett and one his crew went back to the tank shortly after but as it was in flames there was nothing they could do.

Geoffrey Dean was buried at Le Manoir, approximately 1 mile S.E. of where he was killed. After the war, his body was exhumed and reburied in Tilly-Sur Seulles War Cemetery on the 28th March 1946.