NINE men who died serving their country during the Second World War are to be remembered by the people of Yelverton in a special commemoration on Sunday, June 8. Yelverton Village Hall committee has commissioned a plaque to be placed in the War Memorial Hall, Meavy Lane, which will be engraved with the names of the men — Edward Blake, Joseph Down, Arthur Edney, Henry Emerson, George Pitts, Hilary Rendle, Donovan Roe, Geoffrey Shawyer and Russell Weeks. Their stories are outlined in a well produced and fascinating booklet by local historian Peter Hamilton-Leggett, entitled 'A brief biography of Yelverton people killed by enemy action during the Second World War'. There is a plaque with the names of eight of the men in St Paul's Church, Yelverton, but nothing about them at the War Memorial Hall itself, so the committee decided to rectify this omission. The nine are also remembered on the Buckland Monachorum War Memorial at Crapstone. Each of the men have 'their own story to tell' and includes one who was one of the 1,418 British sailors killed in 1941 when HMS Hood was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck. Another mysteriously died in the Special Operations Executive fighting in occupied Europe, while another was tortured by the Japanese in the notorious Changi jail in Singapore. Edward Blake was born in the Falkland Islands in 1890. He joined the Royal Navy around 1908 and was a ship's gunnery officer in the First World War. He retired in 1935 and moved with his wife to Eastella Road in Yelverton. However, when the Second World War started in 1939, he came out of retirement to serve in the Navy onshore. Captain Blake was killed, aged 50, when a dry dock at Portsmouth was bombed by German planes. Joseph Down was born in Okehampton in 1919 and his parents Arthur and Marie Down moved to 3, Meavy Villas in the late 1930s. He joined the Royal Navy Medical Corp at the outbreak of war and served at the British hospital in Kephissa near Athens, helping to deal with a large number of military casualties. He died on March 16, 1941 and is buried at the Phaleron War Cemetery, Athens. Arthur Edney, who was born in Gosport in 1906, followed his father in the Royal Navy and served as a submariner. His parents moved to Binkham Hill, Yelverton. Arthur was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, serving on HMS Wild Swan before becoming an electrical artificer first class on the submarine HMS Triad in 1940. The vessel, which had attacked enemy shipping in the Mediterranean, went down somewhere between the Gulf of Taranto off Italy and her destination of Alexandria, Egypt, in October 1940. Arthur Edney, aged 34, died with all hands, as HMS Triad was believed to either have been hit by a mine or sunk by the Italian navy. Henry Emerson was born in Plymouth in 1920, the third son of parents Thomas and Victoria; the family moved to Golf Links Road, Yelverton, where Henry grew up. A former Kelly College student, he was working in his father's firm of solicitors but joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers as a lieutenant. He became a SOE operative in Italy — his death is somewhat of a mystery and official records merely state that he died of his wounds in September 1944, aged just 23. George Pitts was born in Yelverton in January 1914 and his family lived in Harrowbeer Lane. He enlisted in the Royal Marines, becoming a captain in 1939 and two years later was posted to the battleship HMS Barham. The ship saw plenty of action, including helping British and Allied troops evacuate the island of Crete. Captain Pitts was fatally wounded when the ship was hit by enemy torpedoes off Alexandria in the Mediterranean — its magazine exploded, killing 862 men. Hilary Rendle was born in Plymouth in 1898 and his family moved to New Zealand, where he went to university before joining the Malayan Civil Service — he was a magistrate and coroner. By January 1942, Malaya had fallen to the Japanese and Hilary sent his wife Valerie to live with his parents in Furzeleigh, Yelverton. He escaped to Singapore but was interned by the Japanese in Changi Prison — it was in that notorious prisoner of war camp, where torture, beatings and disease were commonplace, that he lost his life. Donovan Roe was born in Bideford in 1892. His parents moved to Yelverton when his father worked in Devonport Dockyard as a draughtsman. In 1910 he signed up for the Royal Navy as an accounts clerk, serving in Africa during the First World War. In 1937 he was returned to Devonport before being transferred to HMS Hood as the Battle Cruiser Squadron accounting officer. In May 1941 HMS Hood was ordered to intercept the German battleship Bismarck, which was on its way in the North Sea to attack British and allied shipping in the North Atlantic. A shell hit HMS Hood's magazine and it went down in just three minutes. The loss of life was colossal with Commander Donovan one of them — there were only three survivors. Geoffrey Shawyer was born in Uganda in 1922 and his family came back to England, eventually settling at St Maur, Yelverton. He left school and joined the King's Royal Rifle Regiment and as lieutenant fought in the liberation of Europe. He was killed on August 16, 1944 and is buried in a war cemetery in Normandy, France. Russell Weeks was born in Launceston in 1907. He married Elizabeth Chrissie before the Second World War. Serving in the RAF he died in June 1942, aged 35, and is buried at a war cemetery in Iraq. His wife later moved to Yelverton. Carole Thompson, chairman of the Yelverton War Memorial Field and trust committee, told the Times: 'Having rediscovered our fascinating history, we felt that it was only right that we should put something in the hall that would remind us and future generations of their sacrifice and how our Living Memorial came about. 'We are therefore putting a plaque in the foyer of the hall which will be dedicated in a brief service, led by the Reverend Nick Shutt, at 3pm on Sunday, June 8 — the nearest Sunday to the 70th anniversary of D-Day.' All are welcome to the service. A leaflet abridged from the fine document produced by Peter Hamilton-Leggatt is due to be made available for the public at the War Memorial Hall.