Private in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
Died: September 23rd 1943
Age at Death: 22
John Langton was born on 1 August 1921 to George Langton and his wife Margery (née Blunt) of Guildford, Surrey. After leaving the College in 1939 he joined the Queen’s Westminsters as a Territorial Army reservist. Midway through the war, he was transferred to the 2nd Battalion of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. On 9 September 1943 his battalion took part in Operation Avalanche, a landing in the Gulf of Salerno, some 30 miles south of Naples. The aim was for troops to link up with the Allied forces that had conquered Sicily and moved onto the mainland. By 17 September the Allies had prevailed, and the Germans retreated from the beaches. However, frequent clashes with the enemy continued, and it was in this fighting that Langton was killed.
In his letter to the Head Master, Walter Hett, informing the school of the death, George Langton wrote that his son’s letters ‘were always cheerful’, even though he ‘never liked soldiering’. George Langton hoped to ‘hear from someone with the battalion one day’. He and his wife did indeed hear from John’s commanding officer, Captain Woodage, who described the private’s death and burial:
On the morning of the 23rd, the company had to take a bridge strongly held by enemy M.G.s [machine guns]. I took six men, including your son, to clear a house on our right, which had been giving us a great deal of trouble. I regret to say that your son was killed by M.G. fire during this operation. I was within three yards of him at the time. It may be some consolation for you to know that his death was instantaneous and that he could have suffered no pain.
Langton’s grave is in the Salerno War Cemetery.