Dunstable Royal Marine who died on D-Day remembered with cross in Parliamentary Garden of Remembrance

A Dunstable Royal Marine who made the ultimate sacrifice on D Day, aged just 22, has had a remembrance cross planted in the Parliamentary Garden of Remembrance.

It was laid by South West Bedfordshire MP Andrew Selous to honour Horace Walter George Rosson who was born in Luton. The family later moved to Dunstable to live with his mother’s brother in West Street.

Mr Selous said: “Horace was well known in local boxing circles. He was a popular member of Dunstable Pioneer Boys Club and was in the club’s boxing team. He won a cup for the sport which was one of his most treasured mementos.

"He was also very involved in the Boy Scout movement, and worked for florists Birch and Sons on Downs Road.

“All was well until 1939 when war broke out, just before Horace’s 18th birthday. Men from Dunstable, and the whole country, started leaving to go to fight for their country – our country.”

Horace was called up and became a commando in the Royal Marines – a notoriously dangerous role. He was involved in Operation Neptune in the D-Day landings.

This decisive engagement of the Second World War saw the single largest deployment in the history of the Royal Marine Corps, involving 17,500 personnel.

They were heavily involved in the initial landings operating landing craft, assaulting the beaches and manning many of the Royal Navy’s bombarding guns.

The Royal Marines suffered 108 losses – the third heaviest of any British Regiment – and Horace was one of them.

Visibly moved, Mr Selous said: “Imagine that June day in 1944 when Edith Rosson received the devastating news that her only child had been killed in battle at the age of just 22.

“Imagine Christmas Day that year at 262 West Street, and all the birthdays Edith would no longer celebrate with Horace, the lost hopes and dreams, the grandchildren she would never have. I imagine not a day went by when she didn’t grieve for her beloved son.”

Edith eventually moved to Warwickshire where she lived until her death in 1978, 34 years after D-Day.

> The details of Horace’s life are taken from a Remembrance Sunday sermon given by the Rector of Dunstable, the Reverend Rachel Phillips.