Rank: Lance Sergeant
Service No: 2721896
Date of Death: 01/10/1944
Age: 24. 139 Casualty from the Battalion
Regiment/Service: Irish Guards, 3rd Battalion
Grave Reference: 25. A. 5. Cemetery: BERGEN-OP-ZOOM WAR CEMETERY

Additional Information: Son of Ernest and Elizabeth Grayston; husband of Gwendoline Grayston, of Whitchurch Road, Christleton, Cheshire. Gwendoline continued to live in Christleton after his death.

Except from the 3rd Battalion Irish Guards War Diary
September 27th NORTH of NIJEMEGEN - A day of peace and quiet
September 28th From the village of AAM - The Battalion received orders to move into a defensive position in the area of AAM 7170 to relieve 1st Battalion Welsh Guards. We had one squadron of 2 (Armoured) IG tanks in support and the takeover was completed by 18:00 hrs. During the night, heavy mortar fire fell on No. 4 Company area and 5 Ordinary Regulars were killed and 5 wounded. Otherwise the day was uneventful. Patrols were sent out to recce the ground to the NORTH of the Battalion position but found no enemy. We also made contact with 7 GREEN HOWARDS on our Eastern flank. 
September 29th AAM - Very little happened on the Brigade front today and the enemy seemed to have withdrawn slightly from their positions, patrolling was carried out as on the previous evening and no enemy were found.
September 30th AAM - After a peaceful night the morning was spent in laying defensive mine belts and harassing the enemy with mortar and M.G. fire. In the afternoon, Major FITZGERALD (2nd In Charge) was ordered to recce a new concentration area N.W. of GRAVE 6253. 6 Officers and 155 Ordinary Regulars arrived as reinforcements. Patrolling was again carried out during the night and proved to be uneventful. Ten Ordinary Regulars were wounded during the day.

October 1st AAM - To the left of the 7th Green Howards, the 3rd Battalion Irish Guards was also struck by the German counterattack on the morning of October 1st. The Irish Guards had taken up position at Aam - a hamlet, described by the Irish Guards history as "an undistinguished and uninviting group of farms and brick houses on a rough road two miles to the east of the main road to Arnhem". The battalion had exchanged positions with the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards on 28th September. The companies occupied positions on and around the high embankment of an unfinished motorway which was to connect Arnhem with Nijmegen (the green line on the map). The position was backed up by the tanks of No. 2 Squadron, 2nd Battalion Irish Guards. 
By the evening of October 1st, as with the Green Howards at Heuvel, the German counterattack had been repulsed with heavy loss for the attacker. It can be assumed that because Lance Sergeant Christopher Walker Grayson is buried at Bergen–Op-Zoom War Cemetery (approx.. 140 kilometres from Aam), and his fellow soldiers who died on 1st October 1944 are all buried in various War Cemeteries around Arnhem, which are close to Aam, he was probably injured towards the end of September and was being transported back home for treatment, he must have eventually died of his wounds.

The two very evocative pictures of Christopher were loaned to the researchers by his niece. She had taken her mother, his sister, to visit his grave. He was born on 14th May 1920, the middle child of seven. His two brothers died at an early age, He went on to be a textile worker at Lansil before the war. Walker is a family name, the maiden name of his mother. DC/NM

Rank: Lieutenant
Date of Death: 21/12/1942.
Age: 21
Regiment/Service: Royal Marines. H.M. Submarine P.222
Panel Reference: Panel 62, Column 1. Memorial: PORTSMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL
Address. Christleton Hall, Pepper Street, Christleton

Additional Information: Youngest Son of Colonel Paul H. Hemelryk (1879 -1955) and Dorothy Hemelryk (Ne Counsellor 1882 -1963), Brother of Lieutenant Colonel George Edward Hemelryk, Captain Gerard Edward Hemelryk, Royal Signals and Lieutenant Richard Astley Hemelryk, Royal Artillery of Newmarket, Flintshire, later of West Mount, Chester.

Colonel Paul & Mrs Hemelryk purchased Christleton Hall in 1928, was a Cotton broker and a staunch Catholic. It was he who allowed the Salvatorian Fathers to purchase the Hall as a Seminary, which it remained until 1974 when sold to the Law Society.

Anthony Hemelryk was educated at the Royal Navy College, Dartmouth (Admiralty No.1490) Grenville House from 1st January 1935 until 2nd August 1938, during which he received a Science prize for Division II. From 1st September 1938 until 30th April 1939 he served on cadet training cruiser HMS Vindictive, he was then transferred to the battleship HMS Royal Sovereign of the home fleet, in September 1939. He then served on cruiser HMS Suffolk from 23rd September 1939 until June 1940, being then transferred to battleship HMS Barnham on 25th June 1940. He served on HMS Barnham until December 1940. He returned to Portsmouth on 6th January 1940 to complete a promotion course on HMS Victory, in April 1941 he continued his studies and completed a submarine course on HMS Dolphin in June 1941. He was the transferred to HMS Cyclops) on 30th June 1941 for further submarine training until August 1941. He then joined HMS H 43 (submarine) on 10th August 1941, serving until October 1941. He was then transferred to HMS Oberon (submarine) on 12th November 1941 on which he served until April 1942.

His final transfer as a First Lieutenant was to HMS P222 (submarine) in June 1942. On the 21 December 1942 HMS P222 was sunk by Italian surface craft off Naples with all hands lost.

HMS P222 was built by Vickers Armstrong and launched on September 20th 1941. She was initially assigned to the naval base at Gibraltar to guard the entrance to the Mediterranean. On July 27th P222 intercepted the French Merchant ship Mitildja off Cape Palos Spain. The Mitildja was boarded by the V Class destroyer HMS Wrestler and escorted to Gibraltar.