Lieutenant Walter Donaldson

Lieutenant Walter Edward Donaldson, 44th Royal Tank Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps. He was killed in action in North Africa, aged 28, on the 22nd November 1941. He was the son of the late William Donaldson and Miriam Donaldson  formerly of Abbotsford Grove, Kelso and is buried in Halfaya Sollum War Cemetery, Egypt. He had been employed in the Kelso branch of the Bank of Scotland before moving to Forfar. Here he had joined the Territorial Fife and Forfar Yeomanry and was mobilised with them in 1939 being commissioned into the Royal Tank Regiment in March 1941. He fell during “Operation Crusader” which was a surprise attack on the German forces under General Erwin Rommel and which relieved Allied forces who were besieged in the port of Tobruk. The 44th R.T.R. employed the Valentine tank as shown below with its crew. The Valentine was produced in great numbers but was not a good match for the German Mark IV Panzer.

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