Kenneth Frederick Morris Bond was born on October 8th, 1923, on Ceylon (currently known as Sri Lanka), part of the British Commonwealth of nations. He was the son, and probably only child, of Frederick Alfred and Minnie Bertha Bond. His father was a tea broker by trade. In March 1925 little Ken travelled with his mother by ship from Ceylon to England. There is no more information available at TracesOfWar about his years before World War II. In 1941 he was registered as resident of Middlesex and also as serving in the Royal Armoured Corps. It is unclear when Thony joined the C Squadron, 49th (West Riding) Regiment, Reconnaissance Corps, Royal Armoured Corps.
This regiment was part of the 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division, that was attached to 30 Corps in June 1944. Most of the division landed on 13 June in Normandy and would then be involved in several battles in Northern France and Belgium. The 49th (West Riding) Regiment was on the left flank of the Allied advance and from late June until September, 1944, active near Le Havre before pushing via Abbeville to Brussels. In late September a part of the regiment went via Heerenhout northwest towards Roosendaal and Willemstad that was reached in late October. The rest of the regiment went north via Turnhout and Poppel (Belgian side of the border with the Netherlands, south of Tilburg). In November 1944, the regiment (complete again), moved via Venlo towards Mill, which was reached in early December. Then units of the regiment were dispatched to the land of Maas and Waal, especially in the villages Druten, Leeuwen and Wamel, until April 1945.
On 24 December 1944, Corporal Kenneth Bond was on patrol, allegedly from Puiflijk, Druten municipality, when the troop carrier he was in, near Driel in the Betuwe, for unclear reasons drove of the dike, overturned and landed upside down in a ditch. He drowned in that accident. Kenneth Frederick Morris Bond was 21 years of age. He is buried at the Roman Catholic Graveyard in Puiflijk, municipality of Druten, the Netherlands; in grave no. 2.
Corporal Bond is also commemorated, like all killed officers and soldiers of the 49th (West Riding) Regiment, in Wakefield Cathedral, the North Choir Aisle, Northgate in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. Kenneth is also remembered, like all his fallen comrades of the 49 West Riding Division who died in Northwest Europe in the years of 1944-1945, in Fontenay-le-Pesnel, Normandy, France.
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