WILLIAM CHARLES HENRY MANT (or 'Bill' as he was more familiarly known) was born on the 18th April 1916, the eldest son of Charles and Nellie Mant, who lived at that time in North Road, Selsey. By 1937 both his parents had died and he was working at Henstridges the bakers, whose shop was on the corner of East Road and North Road.
 
At the outbreak of World War II, he enlisted in the Army but had to wait a long time for his call-up. He used to cycle round the village with his huge basket, delivering loaves and bemoaning the fact that although he had volunteered, he had not yet been called up.
 
Eventually in 1941 he became a Trooper in the 24th Lancers,  Royal Armoured Corps, and later took part in the D-Day landings. On the 8th June 1944, two days after D-Day, Bill was driving his Sherman tank, in company with a number of others, along a dusty lane near Tilly, about ten miles west of the German-held town of Caen. There the group encountered heavy enemy anti-tank fire from the German “88s” and several of the tanks were hit and put out of action. Among them was the tank being driven by Bill Mant. He is believed to have been killed outright.

A stone to his memory was erected in the Military Cemetery near Caen, and he is remembered on the Bayeux Memorial.¹