Frederick Glover

Lance Corporal Frederick Glover of Southampton was among the first Allied soldiers to land in Normandy on D-Day, parachuting with the 6th Airborne Division in the early hours of 6 June 1944 to seize vital bridges over the River Orne and the Caen Canal. Southampton was the largest embarkation port for D-Day — over 3,500 vessels departed from the Solent, and the city's docks were the assembly point for vast quantities of men, vehicles, and supplies. Glover fought through the Normandy campaign and the advance into Germany, surviving to witness the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, an experience he described as the most harrowing of the war. After demobilisation, he returned to Southampton and worked in the port, where his story became part of the city's D-Day heritage.