This is a photo of the funeral of a buddy of my dads in the Royal Marines.  This typifies one of the many and sense-less ways you can die.  Someone bet Maidment (who was an excellent swimer) that he could not swim from the ship to the shore in Ceylon harbour.  He dived in and drown.

This dead Royal Marine was Norman Maidment, service number PO/X.4050. Norman died October 2, 1945 and is now buried in Sydney Cemetery. Norman was the son of George and Elizabeth Maidment, of Harpurhey, Manchester, England. Norman almost survived the war but was drowned in the harbour.

Funeral of Royal Marine Maidment

Canadian Jim Sellars 3rd from the right, second row standing.  Note this photo contains the names of the men and the ships they were assigned to at the bottom of the picture.  On the right side of the picture in light pencil are the names of 5 men in this picture that were killed and have known graves.  Some of these men would have gone down with their ship and have no known grave.

Plymouth Division, Royal Marine 260 squad

British Ordnance BL 4.5 inch Medium Field Gun firing into the night, North African desert (?2nd El Alamein?).  Best regards, JR.