Jack Banks

Jack Banks was a Trooper with the Warwickshire Yeomanry and a former member of Leominster's Baptist Troop. Researching the history of soldiers can be quite hard, airmen and sailors are often linked to a particular aircraft or ship and the machinery always seems to attract more detailed study than the men themselves. But, we have managed to piece together some of Jacks story.

Jack is buried in the British War cemetery in Tehran. The date of his death corresponds with “Operation Countenance”, a combined Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran intended to secure the Persian oil fields. A controversial event as Persia was a neutral country, but it must be viewed against the recent backdrop of the Invasion of the Soviet Union and the German sponsored rebellion in Iraq that was threatening the supply of oil to the Allied nations.

The operation is seen as a relatively minor event, 22 British soldiers died and it was completed in a matter of a few days. Jack was killed on the same day a Lieutenant Arkwright whose family has historic connections with Leominster. The exact circumstances are not known, however they were both initially buried in the Military Cemetery in Hanan, in 1962 they were moved to the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery within the grounds of the British Embassy in Tehran.