Ordinary Seaman P/JX189197 Cecil Page, of HMS La Flore, was born on the 29th of January 1912 at Eastbourne the son of Richard Page and Margaret Davis of Eastbourne and husband of Ivy Page.

After joining the Royal Navy, he was posted to the shore station HMS Drake and then to the torpedo boat La Flore. This was an ex-French Navy vessel that had escaped to Britain on the collapse of France and was taken over and manned by the Royal Navy until handed back the Free French Navy.

On the night of the 24th of August 1940, at 16.00 hours, a force of 500 German bombers attacked Portsmouth over a wide front, causing heavy damage. One hundred and twenty five people were killed and three hundred were injured. Ordinary Seaman Cecil Page was amongst the dead.

The Eastbourne Herald for the 31st of August 1940, under the heading “Seaman killed on active service”, reports on the death of Cecil Page. It notes that

"..before joining the Navy, he was employed in the cleansing department of Eastbourne Corporation. He left a widow and four children and was the youngest son of his parents, his father had been killed in the Great War."

The paper finally notes that the funeral took place at Langney on the 30th of August.

[Father of deceased, Private 26750 Richard Page,165th Company Machine Gun Corps, formerly with the Royal Sussex Regiment, died on the 26th of September 1916. He has no known grave and is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial.]