Sapper George Edgar Onions
Personal Details
- 5059418 Sapper
- George Edgar Onions
- 259 Field Company
- Royal Engineers
Son of Edwin and Beatrice Onions of Birches Head, Stoke on Trent.
Died on the 21st June 1945. Aged 22.
Buried at Saint Anne Churchyard, Alderney.
Row 6. Grave 1.
The memorial plaque can be found at Victoria Street, memorial garden.
This is an epitaph written in honour of a great man. No not a political leader or a statesman, but an ordinary sapper. He died a hero’s death not fighting but clearing mines from the fields and beaches in the Channel Islands. To those who chance to read this please say a silent prayer for the equally silent men of the Royal Engineers. Their work in the war is not yet finished. We thank a Gunner of the Royal Artillery for the following epitaph.
Epitaph
When you return to your Island home
Let not rejoicing hearts restrain their joy
And meditate, you who have English blood,
On our allegiance to the English Throne,
Seek English Justice and claim your English Rights,
Look on this little mound of fresh cut turf
And read his Epitaph: here buried lies
The shattered corpse of but a boy,
Who gave his life to make your land safe,
Returned his English dust to cleanse our soil
That this grim corner of the Commonwealth
Might once again be England’s. Her field,
Her air, and all the azure sea around,
All her flowers, birds and every tree,
Because this Tommy died for Alderney.
The Reverend Arthur Mignot, a local man who served in the forces, leaves flowers on the grave. Two local un-named ladies used to tend the grave. Ex Lance Corporal Martin Hunt, now living on Alderney places a wreath by the memorial plaque on the anniversary of Sapper G.E. Onions death.
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I will be in Alderney on the 6th October and I will visit and pay my respects to this man.
There was a small gathering, in the rain, at the grave side for a short memorial service led by the Rev’d Jan Fowler. Attendees included the President of Alderney and the elected States of Alderney
I am an artist living on Alderney. I would like to find a photograph of George Onions to paint a portrait of him. Can anybody help?
My father was Sapper Geoffrey C Lea of 259 Field Company, Royal Engineers, and served alongside George in the demining operations in the Channel Islands, after the Force 135 landing to retake the islands.
He told me some years ago about George being killed whilst working with POWs to demine on Alderney; he was working elsewhere on the island. We discussed his war service when my father and mother returned to Jersey in 2005, to attend the 60th anniversary commemorations of Liberation Day. He did not often talk about his war service; he would later lose 7 friends in the Cairnryan explosion of 25 June, 1946, when he had transferred to 1048 Port Operating Company, Royal Engineers, and I think that deeply affected him, especially as it was more than a year after the end of the war in Europe. However, we talked at length on that occasion, so that I might write it down for family history purposes.
He had fond memories of his weeks on the islands, and retained several friends there for decades after, but that was partly overshadowed by the loss of his comrade, whom he never forgot. He was amused and quite surprised when the BBC TV series “Coast” did an episode from the Channel Islands, which featured stories about the occupation and Force 135, and showed them emptying out a German bunker which my father and his team has filled in back in 1945.
He passed away in 2019, at the ripe old age of 95.