Major 121313 Clive Eric Modin 9th Battalion, Kings (Liverpool) Regiment, attached to the 2nd Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment...

...was born the 4th December 1914 at Tynemouth, the son of Air Commodore Charles Oscar Frithiof Modin CBE DSC RAF (1889 to 1966) and Sophie Eileen Modin of Southsea, Hampshire B.A (Canab) (1896 to 1973).

In October 1939, at Speldhurst, Kent, Clive married shorthand typist Ada Mary Ledingham (1914 to 1981). The engagement was announced on the 27th of October in the Courier which noted that the wedding will be a quiet affair taking place “soon”. Clive was noted as of Swallow Barn West, Windmill,Wadhurst and also of Etherton Hill, Speldhurst and Ada as of 14 Northburn Avenue, Aberdeen.

The couple had one child, Anna Lisa J Modin (1941 to 2014) who became a travel writer.

Major Clive Modin was killed in action on the 18th of July 1944, in “Operation Goodwood”, the battle to take Caen. He was one of ten men buried in a battlefield at Touffreville cemetery. All were exhumed on the 15th of June 1945 for reburial at Banneville-La-Campagne War Cemetery.

The Courier for the 11th of August reported upon his death and commented upon his life. The paper noted that:

'Major Modin was the son of Air Commodore C O F Modin CBE DSC RAF, “now a Prisoner of War in Japanese hands”. Major Modin completed his education at Clare College with an Hons degree where he was an outstanding cox with the rowing eight teams, winning many “outstanding victories”. After leaving university he entered his grandfather’s business of Foy, Morgan and Co, timber brokers. Upon the outbreak of war he immediately joined the army and was trained at Sandhurst, from where he received an immediate commission into the King’s Regiment. Early in 1944 he took the Battalion Commanders Course and the Senior Officers’ School and upon return to his regiment, became 2nd In Command of his battalion. His Commanding Officer wrote of him that “Of the many hundreds of officers I have had under my command, none have been better than he and very few his equal”

His probate records him as of “Nutshell”, Etherton, Speldhurst. His estate of £1,650-14-10d was administered to his widow Ada Mary Modin and spinster Jessie Gladys Modin nee Nisbet.

Banneville-La-Campagne War Cemetery. Of this cemetery, the CWGC records that there are 2,170 Commonwealth casualties buried here, of which 140 are unidentified and there are five Polish burials. Most of these men were killed in the fighting from the second week of July 1944 in the taking of Caen to the last week of August when the Falaise Gap was closed and allied forces were preparing for their advance beyond the Seine.