Dennis Moorcock

Bank: Westminster Bank

Place of work: Head Office, London

Died: 25 September 1944

Dennis Edgar Moorcock, known to his family as Den, was born on 20 August 1921, the son of Harold and Elsie Ethel Moorcock. He was educated at Roan School for Boys, Greenwich, where he was a school prefect. In July 1938 he joined the staff of Westminster Bank at its London Lothbury office. Outside work he was keen on a wide variety of sports, including cricket, hockey, cross-country running, ice skating and table tennis. He was also a good card player, particularly fond of contract bridge. 

Shortly before the outbreak of war he tried to join the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve Pilot Section, but was deterred when he found that he would only be allowed to join as air crew, not a pilot; he said that if he went into the air, it would be as a pilot. 

Early in 1941 he joined the army, and subsequently volunteered to become a glider pilot in the Army Air Corps. After successfully completing his training he was posted to North Africa and took part in the airborne invasion of Sicily. He returned to England just before Christmas 1943, and after D Day in June 1944 undertook numerous missions in continental Europe until the Battle of Arnhem, where he sustained severe wounds in an intensive mortar bombardment on 20 September 1944. Staff Sergeant Moorcock died of his injuries five days later, on 25 September 1944. He was 23 years old.