GUARDSMAN Colin Godfrey Wray was one of 14 British soldiers killed in the small town of Kutenholz, in Germany, on April 30, 1945, just four days before the unconditional surrender of German forces at the end of the Second World War.
Local people in Kutenholz have recently erected a memorial bearing the names of the 14 and are researching their stories. As Memories 614 told, one of the 14 was a favourite of Princess Elizabeth, and she mourned him throughout her life, and another was Guardsman Wray whose 1941 Army roll papers say was born in Darlington.
The new memorial in Kutenholz in Germany. Gdsmn Wray's name is on the top of the stone on the right
But fabulous research by readers Gillian Hunt and Susan Draper has now placed his story in Bishop Auckland and sees our quest for his relatives call in the Holliday family of Weardale.
Guardsman Colin Godfrey Wray
The 1921 census reports that one-year-old Colin was born in Bishop and was living with his family in 7, Kellett Street in the town.
His father, Herbert, was 35, from Leeds, and was an assistant master and art and handiwork specialist employed by Durham County Education Committee – presumably he worked at Bishop college.
Herbert had been teaching in Bishop since at least 1911, and he in 1912 had married Flossie Holliday whose father, Thomas, was the Co-op grocery manager in Wolsingham – they lived in Co-op Buildings. Her mother, Annie, continued to run a “refreshment establishment” in Wolsingham for some years.
Flossie, a nurse who had worked at Birmingham hospital, had three children of which Colin was the youngest.
Her eldest was Kathleen Holliday Wray, born January 23, 1913, in Bishop Auckland. She married Richard Bailes and lived in North Tyneside, although when she died in 1988, her death was registered in Central Cleveland, which was the Middlesbrough, Stockton, Yarm area.
Flossie and Herbert’s second child was William Herbert Wray, born on September 9, 1916, in Bishop. He became a schoolteacher, married and died in Rotherham in 2014.
Unfortunately, the census of 1931 was completely destroyed by fire in 1942, so we don’t know where the Wray family were until a wartime register was compiled in 1939. That recorded that Herbert had died in Sheffield in 1939 where Flossie, his widow, was living.
Flossie died in 1976 in the Harrogate area.
Gdsmn Colin Wray is on the right of the top row of three in this 1938 picture. A fortnight ago, we thought this might the 1st Battalion of the Coldstream Guards, but Paul Blagden says: “All the cap badges are those of Grenadiers Guards.”
Colin was in the Grenadier Guards. As the war neared its end and Hitler committed suicide, he was pushing into northern Germany when he was killed at Kutenholz. There were several incidents around the town that day in which a total of 14 British soldiers died and they were buried in a fruit farmer’s field.
However, in 1947, their bodies were moved to an official war cemetery 80 miles away and so the connection with Kutenholz was lost. Now researchers, led by Debbie Buelau, have erected memorials in their honour and have connected with 11 of their families.
The new memorial in Kutenholz
Colin’s family is one of those who Debbie has yet to contact. So who can tell us anything about the Wrays of Kellet Street or the Hollidays of Weardale? And we believe that Colin’s sister, Kathleen, had at least one daughter with the surname Bailes.
Debbie is extremely grateful for all the time and effort people like Gillian and Susan have already put into this quest. If you can take it any further, please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk
Kellett Street in 1910 in Bishop Auckland. Which was No 7?
KELLETT STREET, where Gdsmn Wray was probably born, still stands in Etherley Lane, Bishop Auckland. It is, says Tom Hutchinson, an attractive terrace of buff brick houses built by the Bishop Auckland Co-op in 1898. One of them – presumably the end one with a turret – was built as a nurses’ home while the society let out the other eight.
Flossie’s father being the manager of the co-op in Wolsingham might explain why the family ended up in the co-op-owned Kellett Street.
And why was it named Kellett?
Henry Kellett (above) was born the son of a miner in Shincliffe and started down the colliery when he was 14 in 1857. In 1865, he was badly injured in an accident which stopped him from working for 16 weeks. During his recuperation, he applied to become a 16s-a-week bookmaker’s clerk in the grocery and drapery departments of the co-op and rose to be the General Manager of the whole enterprise for 40 years as it expanded to be the principal retailer in Weardale with all sorts of ancillary interests: slaughterhouse, tobacco factory and many properties.
The co-op usually named its streets after the local heroes of co-operation.
READ MORE: WHEN HERBERT THE MONKEY BROKEN INTO THE CO-OP SLAUGHTERHOUSE
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here