Name: Wellesley Roy Whooten Rank: Private First Class Service Number: 31003886 Service: 13th Infantry Regiment, 8th Infantry Division, US Army Awards: Purple Heart Date of Birth: June 18, 1922 Place of Birth: Halifax, Nova Scotia Date of Enlistment: February 8, 1941 Place of Enlistment: Boston, Massachusetts Address at Enlistment: Boston, Suffolk Co., Mass. Age at Enlistment: 18 Height: 5 feet, 5 inches Complexion: Dark Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Blue Marital Status: Single Religion: Protestant Next of Kin: Roy Charles Whooten, father Date of Death: August 30, 1944 Age: 22 Cemetery: Brittany American Cemetery, St. James, France Grave: Plot L, Row 17, Grave 16 Wellesley Roy Whooten was the son of Roy Charles Whooten (1894-1974) and Adeline Viola (Horton) Whooten (1899–1965). His father was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland. His mother was born in Port Bickerton in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia. Wellesley’s father served with 4th Machine Gun Corps in France during the First World War. Upon discharge, and living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he reenlisted for service in the Special Guard of the Canadian Military Police Corps. Wellesley had seven brothers Alverdo ‘Dody’ M. Whooten (1920-2010), Gordon Phillip Whooten (1927-1980), William Arnold Whooten (1929-2005), Robert James Whooten (1932-2006) Roger Arthur Whooten (born 1935), Richard Arlen Whooten (born 1938) and Ronald Alvin Whooten (1938–1990); and a sister Marion Viola (1925-2000). Alverdo served with the US Army in the South Pacific in WWII. The family moved to the United States during the 1920’s and settle in Hyde Park, in Boston, Massachusetts. Wellesley registered for the US Draft on January 24, 1941, in Boston. He was still living at home at 118 Summit Street in Hyde Park, was and unemployed at the time. After enlistment in February of 1941, he was assigned to the 13th Infantry Regiment of the 8th infantry Division in the US Army. The 13th Regiment found itself fighting through the hedgerows of France in July 1944 and led the drive to the Aa River in northern France. The regiment spent ten months in combat in Normandy, Northern France, The Rhineland and Central Europe. Private Fist Class Wellesley Roy Whooten was killed in action August 30, 1944 in during the Normandy Campaign. Wellesley was initially interred at the Saint James Cemetery, in Avranches, France (designated by the US Army Grave Registration Service as temporary cemetery 3578). With grave consolidation, he was then re- interred at the Brittany American Cemetery. In the rolling farm country, south west of the D- Day beaches, is Brittany American Cemetery. More than 4,400 Americans are buried there. Many lost their lives in the months after D-Day. The cemetery marks the region where American Forces made their critical breakthrough from the hedgerows of Normandy, into the plains of Northern France, extending the Normandy beachhead eastward toward the Seine River. These intense battles would break Hitler’s iron grip on Europe. Wellesley Roy Whooten is one such casualty. As per the American Battle Monuments Commission that maintains the Cemetery, “Everyday, the cemetery’s chapel bells toll in memory of Americans who helped liberate France from Tyranny, and gave their lives for freedom” When Wellesley’s brother Alverdo and his wife Helen (Labute) Whooten had their first son in 1947, they named him Wellesley.

Sources American Battle Monuments Commission - Wellesley R. Whooten American Battle Monuments Commission - Brittany American Cemetery findagrave Honorstates.org