Fitting Memorial to a Fighting Christian
A Purley priest who was awarded the Military Cross for his bravery in World War II is to be commemorated in the village where he lost his valiant battle for life.
The Belgian descendant of villagers killed in the Battle of Hechted now wants to rename the street that Major Hugh Lister was killed in, to honour his memory 60 years on.
Major Hugh Lister, priest of the Old Rectory house in Purley, served in the Welsh Guards Regiment 1st Battalion during World War II.
Ordained before the war, Major Lister earned himself a reputation as a daring and brave addition to the British army, believing it was his duty to fight alongside soldiers in combat instead of enlisting as a chaplain.
He was awarded the Military Cross for his role in a particularly brutal attack on a German gun position.
On 9th September 1944, Major Lister was killed in Hechtel, Belgium, coming to the aid of another Battalion under German fire.
Major Lister was so highly regarded that the 1st Battalion's War Diaries, which records all casualties, praised his courage in an unprecedented note accompanying the report of his death.
Bob Vranken, public relations officer for Camp Beverlo, a Belgian army camp, said: "Hechtel is the village where I was raised and still live now.
"The Battle of Hechtel is very important to my family as two of my mother's uncles and nine other civilians were killed by the Germans on 11th September 1944, like animals and without mercy.
"An ex-serviceman of the Welsh Guard Regiment, Bill Wheeler - a good friend of mine who passed away last year - showed me the spot where Major Lister was killed. It is a small street in the village near the church.
"The personality of Major Lister fascinates me enormously. He is now buried in the British War Cemetery behind our headquarters in Leopoldsburg.
"Almost out of necessity the War Diaries records casualties without comment, but of Major Lister the 1st Battalion Diary says: 'His personality and example had been an inspiration to the battalion. He will be irreplaceable because he was unique. All who served with him will always remember him as a man who was truly great'."
Major Lister was a priest of the Church of England and a nephew of Lord Lister. His mother owned the Old Rectory.
Bob Vranken would like to contact any friends, relatives or people who served with Major Lister to assist him with an article he is writing on the unlikely war hero.