Research - Courtesy of Irthlingborough History Society:
Reg is also on the Irthlingborough War Memorial. He was born in 1920, the youngest son of Ernest and Annie Dickerson of 87 Addington Road, Irthlingborough. He was educated at Irthlingborough Council School and later married Ella May Newell of Stanwick. They had one son born in 1943.
Prior to joining the Army, Reg was employed in the Grocery Dept of the I'boro' Co-operative Society. He was well-known locally as a drummer with a dance band. An enthusiastic sportsman, he was very popular in cricket and football circles.
Reg was a Batman in his regiment and on 6th June 1944 he was a member of No 9 Beach Group which landed on Gold Beach at La Riviere, Normandy during the D-Day Landings. The Beach Group was an essential component of the sea landing force. It organised the initial landing, defended the beach head and supervised the flow of reinforcements and supplies to the beach head. It was therefore one of the first units to land.
Reg was rushing up the beach with his officer, who later reported, "One minute he was there and the next he was down." Private Reginald Dickerson died instantly. He was aged 24 years and is buried at Bayeux War Cemetery.
Note: (as told to Sally Tebbutt by John Ward): John Ward was neighbour to Mrs Dickerson and in 1964/5 she asked John to go into a bedroom in her house to catch a starling that had got in thro' a broken window. John was amazed to find that the room had remained untouched since Reg's death twenty years earlier. No one ever went in there. Mrs Dickerson had closed the room when her son died and left everything exactly as it was. Even his drum kit stood in the room. Reg's mother had never got over his death.
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