They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

For The Fallen, by Laurence Binyon.

With Remembrance Day approaching Letchworth Nub News with the help of Letchworth Rugby Club, including 'Grave Finder' Adam Winwood and Brian Burke among others, will be highlighting another fallen hero from the Role of Honour on the wall at the clubhouse on Legends Lane.

Read on for the inspirational story of Letchworth Rugby Club's World War Two D-Day hero Oliver Sinnatt and the club's pilgrimage to the fallen warrior's grave in Northern France.

As the senior club in North Herts and the only rugby club in the area to be founded before the Second World War, Letchworth lost 18 young men in the conflict between 1939 to 1945.

Some of these played for both the town side and the Tabulators in the 1930s as the only rugby teams across North Herts at the time.

Oliver John Sinnatt was only 22 when he fell on June 6, 1944 D-Day the longest day, and the first wave of the allies to liberate Europe from the Nazis.

Oliver was the son of Dr Oliver Sturdy Sinnatt who had won an MC in the First World War and his wife May who had moved to Meadow Way Letchworth from Sleaford some four years before . 

Young Oliver was a lieutenant in the R A C (Royal Artillery) and was in the thick of the fighting from the outset . 

A brother officer who wrote to his parents told them how the lieutenant 'had a job to do' and in so do doing with great bravery he lost his life . 

In order to facilitate an attack he got out of his armoured car to cut some wire in their path. They successfully did this but himself and his fellow operator were both killed by enemy fire before they could move off. If it had not been for his intense sense of duty he would have been safe.

This however was typical of the younger Sinnatt who was a fearless rugby player in his youth . He had been with the Home Guard for two years and as he was in a reserved occupation he need not have joined up , but both he and younger brother David had listed with the RAC . 

The citation in the local paper The Citizen read his loss would be deeply and widely felt by his family and friends 

Now after the passing of nearly eighty years three men of Letchworth have made the pilgrimage to his grave in Northern France at Ryes Memorial Cemetery Bazenville. Treasurer Chris Taff Marshall and marketing officer Leslie Wilsher joined Winwood in laying a cap and wreath on Sinnatts grave in the dying sunlight on Armistice day

At the going down of the sun this legend who will remain forever young was duly recognised for a job done well. 

It goes without saying that in the Letchworth Rugby tradition he was toasted long into the night by the travelling triumvirate 

Sleep well, Lieutenant Sinnatt.

As well as the laying of a wreath at the Baldock memorial on Sunday by ex army Legend Tony Simpson and present day scrum half Harvey Howman, the club are remembering their own fallen through club 'grave finder' Adam Winwood.

REMEMBRANCE ARTICLES

Letchworth: As Remembrance Day approaches We Shall Remember Them - Legends from Legends Lane

Letchworth Rugby Club Gravefinders team pays tribute to Second World War hero and England International: RAF Flight Lieutenant Brian McMaster

Frank Young VC: 'We will remember them' - the story of Hitchin's Victoria Cross