Local child and child evacuee killed by an unmarked mine on The Lizard
Died: 23rd July, 1944
Laid to rest: Gunwalloe churchyard, The Lizard
Harry Dale - was the only child of Henry Dale (1909 - 1971), a butcher in Helston. His mother was Alaminta (nee Baddley/Uren): her father, John James Baddley, was born in Dublin, signed up for war service in Newquay (while the family were living in Camborne), and was killed in France (1), 4 months before the birth of Alaminta's brother.
In 1939, before the outbreak of World War Two, the couple were living with their son, Harry, and Henry's father, Thomas (1874 - 1956) in Lily Cottage at Gunwalloe. The family must have offered to accommodate a child that needed to be evacuated from London: Ronald Munting from Hornsey Rise would have arrived either in the autumn of 1939, or the summer of 1940.
Ronald Munting had been born in Edmonton in 1932 to Arthur and Emily Munting (nee Reid). His father was a Clerk, and he had an older sister and a younger brother.
At the time of the 1939 records, Ronald was an 'inmate' at All Saints, St Albans. Though the writing is hard to decipher, it seems to be a 'Girl's Home', and the majority of people there are girls - around 60 children, accompanied by 5 teachers and 8 other staff. One of the staff, Mabel Reid, may have been a relative of his mother. Perhaps Ronald was recuperating from illness here, before he was evacuated to Cornwall.
Both boys were killed when they wandered on the beach and accidentally triggered an explosion from an unmarked mine which killed them both. Ronald Munting's grave is adjacent to that of Harry, and both boys rest here in the beautiful countryside they would have enjoyed exploring in their four years of adventures together.
(1) World War 1 Search – Cornwall War History (cornwallfhs.com)