Grateful French village's tribute to Sheffield hero, hundreds of miles from his final resting place
Gerald Strachan lies buried in quiet corner of a Sheffield cemetery, in the city where he settled after meeting the love of his life.
But hundreds of miles away from that graveyard in Handsworth, grateful residents of a French town have this week created a memorial to him, far away from the city where his family lived.
While his name may not be well known here in Sheffield, he is viewed as a hero in the town of Bruneval for his bravery in a raid by paratroopers on radar stations nearby on the Normandy coast in 1942.
And this week, a bench featuring a plaque in his name was unveiled in his memory, for his role in the raid which left him injured by three bullets, but from which he still returned.
Born and brought up in Scotland, Gerald joined the army in 1927, and rose to the rank of sergeant major in the Black Watch, a famous Scottish regiment, going on to train as a paratrooper.
Taking part in the Breneval raid, he was injured on the beaches as the troops left the area after the mission. He was shot three times in his stomach, but continued to help clear the beach of enemy troops and organise the embarkation of British troops onto boats.
He went on to serve in North Africa, Italy and Arnhem, before being taken prisoner by the Germans.
In 1940, he had met Corporal Ivy Leversidge who was the cook at a depot in in Darley Dale, Derbyshire. And he was in the area again after the Bruneval raid, when he was sent to Hardwick Hall to train new recruits.
A year later he married Ivy in Chesterfield, before they set up home together in Sheffield, having two children together, and settling on Studley Road, Darnall.
Gerald remained in the army after World War Two ended.
But sadly, he died in Wharncliffe hospital in July 1948, having suffered stomach pains while on leave at home. He was aged just 41.
An inquest reported in The Star reported that the coroner said it was related to his war wounds.
He was buried at St Joseph’s Church cemetery, Handsworth.
French local historian Nicolas Bucourt, from Bruneval, a member of a local group set up to remember the veterans of the raid, said they had wanted the bench to be a tribute to a soldier who had died of wounds he suffered in the raid near their village, on its 83rd anniversary last month.
He said: “Our Bruneval Raid veterans remembrance group made a brass plate for the memorial bench to remember his sacrifice and make known his story.
“The memorial bench was unveiled last Sunday morning in glorious sunshine.
“The bench will be soon set up in a park of the Major John Frost Street in La Poterie Cap d'Antifer, next to the drop zone where Strachan was dropped.”