Kenneth Mayhew

Major Kenneth George Mayhew (18 January 1917 – 13 May 2021) was a British Army veteran of the Second World War. Mayhew was one of the recipients of the Military William Order, the highest honour of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

In 1939 Kenneth Mayhew volunteered to join the Suffolk Regiment and served as an officer of the 1st Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment. He commanded a company which landed in Normandy in 1944 and fought in the North West Europe Campaign. Mayhew was injured while fighting in the Netherlands. He resumed command of his company before being injured again and returning to the United Kingdom.

In 1946 Mayhew was knighted by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, receiving the Knight fourth class of the Military William Order. The chapter of the order lost contact with him in the 1980s until he was seen wearing his medal at a memorial service in 2011. He subsequently became an active member of the order.

Early life Mayhew was born in Suffolk on 18 January 1917, as the son of a farmer. He attended Framlingham College. From 1936 to 1939 he played cricket for the Suffolk County Cricket Club.

Military service

At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 Mayhew was conscripted. In January 1940, he entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and following completion of his training became a second lieutenant in the 1st Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment, 8th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division. Originally scheduled to cross to Southern France in 1940 before the Fall of France, the battalion stayed in the United Kingdom, and from 1942 they began preparing for an invasion of France and simulating landings.

On 6 June 1944 Mayhew commanded a company equipped with 13 armoured infantry carriers that landed at Sword Beach in Normandy, on D-Day. The Dutch government however decided that a higher honour should be awarded. On 24 April 1946, by Royal Decree, Mayhew was knighted by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, receiving the Knight fourth class of the Military William Order. The Order is the highest and oldest military honour of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, bestowed for "performing excellent acts of Bravery, Leadership and Loyalty in battle". In the words of the royal decree: Due to his injuries Mayhew was unable to travel to the Dutch embassy in London. Instead he received the honour by mail.

Later life

After the war Mayhew became a representative in artificial fertilizers.

Since 2012 Mayhew visited the Netherlands several times and was active as a member of the Military William Order. In May 2013 he was an honorary guest at the annual Liberation Day ceremony in Wageningen, and visited the Overloon War Museum. In May 2014 Mayhew opened the annual Liberation Day celebrations in Wageningen, attended by over 1800 veterans and 120,000 visitors. Later that month Mayhew baptised tulips in London, a gift from the Netherlands to mark the 70-year anniversary of Operation Market Garden, attended by representatives from the Dutch, British, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, Polish and US armed forces. On 6 December 2014 he was an honorary guest at the knighting of Gijs Tuinman, one of only two knights present, out of only four alive at the time. The event, which was broadcast live on Dutch national television, saw Mayhew welcoming Tuinman as a new member of the order. In honour of his 100th birthday, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands sent Mayhew a congratulatory letter in January 2017, which was delivered by the Dutch ambassador to the United Kingdom. Mayhew was a guest at Buckingham Palace during the state visit of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and Queen Máxima to the United Kingdom in October 2018. In 2018 a book was published about his life with an introduction by king Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.

As a D-Day veteran and member of Suffolk Regiment, Mayhew attended several memorial services in Normandy in 1994, 2004 and 2014. These services were organised by a local association called "Les Amis du Suffolk Régiment" (French: Friends of the Suffolk Regiment) and the municipality of Colleville-Montgomery, which was liberated by the Suffolk Regiment in 1944. In 2014, Mayhew met with a former German defender of Hillman Battery and also with a grandson of Colonel Ludwig Krug, the commander of Hillman Battery.

Personal life

Mayhew was married in 1939 to Rosalie Elizabeth "Betty" née Howell, now deceased. He had three children from his marriage to Betty, a son Roger, born in 1940 and twin daughters, Susan and Gillian born in 1945. He had six grandchildren from their marriage and had several great-grandchildren. He married his second wife Patricia after Betty died aged 79. Mayhew died on 13 May 2021, aged 104.

Military ranks As a commissioned officer (#130441) Mayhew held the following ranks: Second lieutenant, 11 May 1940 War substantive lieutenant, 11 November 1941 France and Germany Star, for operational service in France, Belgium and the Netherlands

France Knight of the Legion of Honour

Literature