Ronald Salter

Ronald Salter lived in Hambledon at 4 Church Lane and was the son of Marion Hoare (née Salter). He was well known locally and remembered as a close friend of the Clay family, part of the small village community where families and friendships often overlapped across generations.

He joined the 1st Battalion Hampshire Regiment in 1933, long before the outbreak of the Second World War, and therefore belonged to the pre-war professional army. Over the following decade he served overseas in India and Palestine and later endured the long and dangerous defence of Malta between 1941 and 1943, where the garrison survived constant air raids and shortages during one of the most heavily bombed sieges of the war.

After operations in Sicily and Italy the battalion finally returned to England after twenty-three years abroad. On D-Day, 6th June 1944, the 1st Hampshires landed on Gold Beach as the right-hand assault battalion of 231 Brigade, 50th (Northumbrian) Division. Fighting inland they captured the fortified strongpoint of Le Hamel, taking many prisoners, before continuing toward Bayeux and Arromanches as part of the expanding Allied bridgehead.

During the hard fighting in Normandy the battalion attacked positions around Hottot. Ronald Salter was killed in action on 17th July 1944, one day before the village was finally secured. He is buried in St Manvieu War Cemetery at Cheux in Normandy.

Having served across three continents before the invasion of France, his military life spanned the entire pre-war army and the decisive campaigns of 1944. He was one of the Hambledon men who had spent much of his adult life in uniform and did not live to see the liberation of Europe he helped achieve.