Wallace Liddle Shell Pte 4455620
Personnel Entry
Name Wallace Liddle Shell - known as "Larry"
Army number 4455620
Rank Private.
Decorations None known beyond Service Awards.
Date of birth Not yet known.
Age
Unit Joined The Durham Light Infantry, no exact enlistment date yet known, but almost certainly 2nd or 3rd May 1939. Posted ? 6th Bn DLI. Posted 10th Bn DLI. Served B.E.F. Served Iceland. Served Normandy. Wounded in action. Repatriated to the UK to hospital. Released to Army Z Reserve 15/5/1946.
Company/Battery
Platoon or other sub-unit
Task or role
Joined Brigade 1/9/1939.
Promotions
Wounded Yes - near Caen, Normandy - exact date not yet known. Hospitalised in Whitchurch, Shropshire.
Prisoner of War
Died/Killed in action
Home address Resident of Crediton, Devon, in 1946. No further family information as yet (but see below).
Source table 10DLI
The DLI Enlistment Book had Pte Wallace shown as having Died of Wounds. The entry was deleted as being incorrect. Presumably this was an error of communication within, or involving, Infantry Record Office, York, as his wife was sent a notification that he had succumbed to his wounds. She was already aware that he was in hospital in the UK. A piece to that effect appeared in their local newspaper. He had been listed in a War Office return as having "Died of Wounds" with a date not recorded. His wounding was referenced as CL1520/33. He thankfully survived his injuries.
We are now awaiting details of Pte Wallace's service which his family have requested from the MoD's Historical Disclosures Branch. We are grateful to the family and to researcher Jim Tuckwell for information on Pte Wallace.
