Born: 16 Jan 1922
Died: 18 Sep 1944
Age at death: 22 years, 8 months, and 2 days
Company: SP
Platoon: Mor's
Section: -
Parachute Course: K58

Life Story:
1432862 Corporal Thomas Bedford was born in Portsmouth on January 16, 1922 and was the son of Edgar and Ada May Bedford, of Fratton.

After attending Parachute Course No. 58 at Ramat David in Palestine from 04 until 16 August 1943, he was assigned to the Mortar Platoon of Support Company, 11th Parachute Battalion.

While serving in the 11th battalion of the 4th Parachute Brigade, he took part on Operation Market Garden – the push into Germany which saw thousands of British and US paratroopers dropped into the Netherlands, with the aim of capturing key bridges and allowing Allied troops to advance upon Berlin.

Although the bridges were initially captured, the land reinforcements took too long to arrive and the offensive was ultimately unsuccessful. However, there will still some successful outcomes with the operation leading to the liberation of large parts of the Netherlands.

Thomas died on September 18, 1944, at the age of 22.
He is buried at the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery in grave 5.B.1.