John England

Bank: Westminster Bank

Place of work: London King's Cross branch

Died: 24 March 1945

John Kay England was born on 15 September 1922, the son of Edward Arthur and Marion McCulloch England. He was educated at Yarmouth Grammar School, and joined the temporary wartime staff of Westminster Bank in August 1940. After a month's training in the bank's machine accountancy school, he was posted to its London King's Cross branch. 

In August 1941 England left the bank to go on war service, joining the army. In December 1942 he received his commission. He served in the Border Regiment, and then in October 1943 volunteered for paratroop training. On the night before D Day, 5-6 June 1944, he was dropped into France, and the following day was captured by the Germans. He spent a month in a German prison camp, during which time he and his fellow prisoners made a number of escape attempts. They were then boarded onto a train for transfer to another camp. During the journey Lieutenant England and three other officers successfully broke out of their truck and jumped from the train, which was moving at about 15 miles per hour, and escaped. After a month as fugitives, they found and presented themselves to British troops on 6 August 1944. For his conduct during his captivity and escape, England was awarded an MBE.

He later returned to active duty as an intelligence officer in the Royal Armoured Corps, serving in Belgium. He took part in the crossing of the Rhine on 14 March 1945, but was killed soon afterwards, on 24 March 1945, when a Horsa glider crashed into the wood where his battalion headquarters was assembling. Lieutenant England was 22 years old.

John England is commemorated on a bank war memorial held at NatWest Group Archives.