Roland Stewart was born in the autumn of 1917 a year or so before the end of the First World War. He was the fourth child and only son of Harry Chetwynd Stewart and his wife Maud Louisa Clara (née Wooley). By 1921, the family was living as an extended family at 119 Maida Road, Chatham. Head of the household was Roland’s maternal grandmother, Leah Hinkley, and her daughter Hilda Wooley, together with Roland’s parents and their now five children, all born in Chatham: Violet aged 10, Leah aged 8, Dorothy age 6, Roland aged 3, and Winifred just a year old.
There is scant trace of Roland in the official records, and he does not appear with his family in the 1939 Register, taken on 29 Sep 1939, suggesting he may already have been in military service by that date.
In March 1939, it was announced that the British Territorial Army was to recruit up to double its strength and immediately men began to step forward to enlist. It is likely that Roland joined the regiment during this surge in recruitment in the spring of 1939, when the Territorial Army rapidly expanded and the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment doubled its strength.
The 5th Battalion, Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment, was a Territorial Army unit that mobilised on the outbreak of war on 1 September 1939. Two days later, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany in response to the German invasion of Poland, and the 5th, along with the 4th and 7th Battalions, had completed their embodiment smoothly and efficiently and were ready to be deployed.
After a brief period of home defence and training in England, the battalion was sent to France in early 1940 as part of the British Expeditionary Force. Following the German invasion in May, it became involved in the rapid and often chaotic withdrawal to the Channel ports, experiencing air attack, exhaustion, and confusion before evacuation at Dunkirk. Despite suffering heavy losses, including another man named on this Roll of Honour, Private John Henry Taylor, the battalion spent the next two years on coastal defence and intensive training, preparing for future operations while the threat of invasion remained real.
After evacuation from Dunkirk in June 1940, the battalion returned to Britain and spent a long period on home defence duties, initially in the south and east of England where invasion was feared. Through 1941-42, like many Territorial units, they gradually shifted from static defence to intensive training with field exercises, route marches, weapons training, and preparation for overseas service.
In 1943 the battalion was selected for overseas service and moved to the Mediterranean, joining 36th (Independent) Infantry Brigade. They landed in southern Italy in the autumn of 1943 and were quickly committed to the advance northwards. This was a demanding transition: after years in Britain, they were suddenly operating in mountainous terrain against experienced German troops, with different tactics, climate, and conditions. Reinforcements were drafted in, of course, but a solid core of early-war Territorials often remained, particularly experienced NCOs such as Roland had by then become.
In November 1943 the battalion saw action around Mozzagrogna, during the advance towards the German Winter Line. This involved attacking well-defended positions in difficult country of ridges, olive groves, and fortified farms, where enemy machine-gun and mortar fire was intense.
The 5th Battalion War Diary for 30 November 1943 records a successful attack on the hamlet of Romagnoli, but with heavy casualties: seventeen men and one officer were killed within ten minutes of the assault beginning.
Roland, by then a Serjeant, was among those reported missing. His body was not recovered and, on 28 January 1944, he was officially recorded as having been killed in action. In 1948, his family added his name to an “In Memoriam” notice in the local paper: STEWART.- Treasured memories of Sgt Roland Stewart, 5th RW Kents, killed in action in Italy, Nov 30th 1943. His loving Mum, Dad, Sisters, and Brothers-in-law. “Longed for always.”. Like so many of his generation, Roland left only the faintest trace in the surviving records – a life and a loss, all the more poignant.
Serjeant Roland H C Stewart is commemorated in the Sangro River Cemetery, Italy
