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