Albert Marcus Rueff

Lieutenant, Rifle Brigade
9th (lst Bn. The Tower Hamlets Rifles) Bn.
Service number: 76382
Died 7 Apr 1941
Buried Benghazi War Cemetery, Libya & commemorated at Willesden Jewish Cemetery, United Kingdom
Age 26

Headstone Inscription
“IN A SHORT WHILE HE FULFILLED LONG YEARS”


Albert, known as Marcus, was born on 16 October 1914 in Hanover Square, London to Leon, a merchant banker with Seligman Brothers, who was born in Alsace, France and Suzanna (Suze) nee Galish who was born in Amsterdam and he was an only child.

He was educated at Eton College, Windsor, Berkshire, and graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge University, Cambridge in 1936 with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.). He then joined the Soncino Press and worked on the editorial staff before being gazetted to his regiment in August 1939. Joining the Tower Hamlets Rifles, he gained the rank of Lieutenant in the 9th Battalion, Rifle Brigade. On 17 May 1940 he married Veronica Mary Pearson, daughter of Major Hon. Bernard Clive Pearson and Hon. Alicia Mary Dorothea Knatchbull-Hugessen.

Marcus was serving in the Middle East and on the afternoon of 7 April he was in an Army truck that arrived at Derna Aerodrome and ran into an ambush. The truck swerved to a standstill under a hail of machine gun bullets and Marcus was mortally wounded.

His father Leon died eighteen months later and is buried at Willesden Jewish cemetery and Marcus is remembered on his parents graves. His wife remarried nine years after his death and although she was married for over thirty years Marcus is also remembered on her grave stone.

The Tatler 1940
Photo courtesy The War Graves Photographic Project
Photo courtesy of Stanley Kaye