THE names of six soldiers who drowned while on a training exercise on Windermere in 1945 are to be read out on Remembrance Sunday this year after an appeal from a reader of The Westmorland Gazette.

The men, aged between 18 and 21, died after a sudden squall caused waves to swamp and sink their collapsible assault boat.

The exercise took place in July 1945, after V.E. Day, but while Britain was still at war with Japan.

Don Lowis, of Windermere, recalls the incident, which happened when he was a young boy, and appealed for the Royal British Legion to read out their names at the Windermere cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday.

Writing to the Gazette, he said: “It is my opinion that members of the armed forces killed on exercise are no less worthy of our remembrance than those killed in action.

“We promise every Armistice that we will remember them but it seems these young men have been largely forgotten.”

After being contacted by the paper, the Windermere Branch of the Royal British Legion decided to read out the six soldiers’ names on Remembrance Sunday in St Martin's Parish Church, as it will be the 70th anniversary of the accident.

The drownings were reported in the Gazette on July 28 1945, which recounted: “An officer and five men of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps were drowned crossing the 300 yards of water between Cockshott Point and Belle Isle.

“There were nine men on board when a sudden squall caused waves to swamp the boat.

“Three men were saved but six, wearing full battle kit, were drowned.

“The men drowned were 2/Lt. Rodney Nigel Holt, 20, Romsey, Hants.; and Riflemen Jack William Weir, 19, Culloden, Inverness, Reginald Ernest Taylor, 19, Stratforn-on-Avon, Harry Cohen Richard, 19, Upper Holloway, Henry Frank Thorp, 18, Hammersmith and Ronald William Digby, 21, Willesden.”

The report goes on to say: “At the meeting of Windermere Urban District Council on Monday, the Chairman Coun J.B. Dixon said it was tragic to think that six young lives were lost in an endeavour to become efficient in order to protect the country.

“Some people might think it was no longer necessary for them to continue this intensive training, but they must remember the country was still to a great extent under war conditions.”