Wartime Heritage
ASSOCIATION
copyright © Wartime Heritage Association 2012-2024
Website hosting courtesy of Register.com - a web.com company
Raymond Thomas Voss
WWII Casualty - Civilian Technical Corps
The Wartime Heritage Association is committed to curating a comprehensive list of all WWII casualties from Nova Scotian or
with ties to Nova Scotia. In its research to create the list, the Association discovered Raymond Thomas Voss, who has no ties to
Nova Scotia, but who was a casualty of the Second World War. We further discovered that he is not currently commemorated by
the Commonwealth War Graves Commission – he has no marked grave in the cemetery in which he’s interred.
Name:
Raymond Thomas Voss
Position:
Welder
Service Number:
2226
Service:
Civilian Technical Corps
Date of Birth:
September 20, 1916
Place of Birth:
Racine, Wisconsin
Date Enrolled:
January 8, 1942
Age when Enrolled:
25
Height:
5 feet, 11 inches
Complexion:
Light Brown
Eye colour:
Blue
Hair colour:
Brown
Date of Death:
June 2, 1943
Age:
26
Cemetery:
Troon Cemetery, South Ayrshire, Scotland
Grave:
Section J, Row I, Grave 215 (Section IJ, lair number 215)
- Not currently commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission -
Raymond Thomas Voss was the son of Ralph Voss and Mrs. Virginia Dare Voss. His father was born in Wisconsin; his mother – in
Florida. The family was living in Tampa, Florida in 1930. Raymond completed 4 years of college. He was living in Sampson, Florida
in 1935 and by 1940, Raymond and his wife Gladys were boarding in Columbia, Richland, South Carolina. Raymond was working as
a salesman.
Raymond registered for the US Draft on 1940 in Knoxville, Tennessee but he never enlisted with US forces in WWII. He listed his
next of kin as his mother who was living on Massachusetts Ave in Tampa, Hillsborough Co., Florida at the time.
After enrolling in the Civilian Technical Corps in January of 1942, Raymond has his passport issued in New York January 21, and
arrived in the UK on February 9, 1942. The Civilian Technical Corps was an American quasi-military uniformed organization raised
in 1941 in the United States of America, to directly assist with the war effort within the United Kingdom.
The Corps was manned by volunteer civilians. They wore a uniform
identical to the wartime Royal Air Force, but with unusual wreath-
and-bars non-commissioned rank badges instead of chevrons, of the
same design as those issued to members of the Royal Observer
Corps, another semi-military air force corps within the UK during
the same era. Their uniforms included a ‘USA’ shoulder patch and
black buttons instead of the RAF brass buttons.
Raymond was posted to HMS Dinosaur at Troon on May 20, 1942,
HMS Quebec at Inveraray on January 26, 1943, and then to HMS
Rosneath (or Roseneath), in the historic county of Dunbartonshire
(now known as Argyll and Bute), Scotland, on February 10, 1943.
On June 2, 1943, a welder was needed to work underneath the
ramp of a landing craft in order to complete tasks considered
extremely urgent due to the fact that the landing craft had to be
ready in time for the convoy sailing from the Clyde to take part in
the invasion of Sicily on July 10, 1943. Owing to a mechanical failure, the cause of which was never established, the ramp was
suddenly released and struck Mr. Voss, killing him instantly.
Raymond Thomas Voss was awarded a posthumous commendation for gallantry by Sir Archibald Sinclair, the Secretary of State for
Air in Winston Churchill’s coalition government’s war cabinet.
Raymond Voss is interred at the Troon Cemetery in Scotland, currently in an
unmarked grave. He is remembered on a marker at the Myrtle Hill Memorial
Park, Tampa, Hillsborough County, Florida, where he grew up with his parents.
On February 22, 2023, the Wartime Heritage Association inquired with the Troon Cemetery administration who confirmed that
Raymond Voss is interred at Troon, and that they were in the process of confirming if his grave is marked. The Association
subsequently completed a non-commemoration report to the CWGC on February 26, 2023, to identify that Raymond Voss was not
properly commemorated with a grave marker at Troon Cemetery.
Civilian Technical Corps
Civilian Technical Corps members inspected by the King
South end view of the dockyard at Rosneath, with landing craft moored. © IWM (A 29915)