Cyril Abram was born in West Ham in Essex on 20 August 1922, the son of Mr Henry George Abram (a Warehouseman) and Mrs Lily Abram (née Lewington) of 50, Salisbury Road, Newham, Manor Park. When the 1939 Register was compiled Cyril was at home with his parents and he was recorded as a lift attendant.

It is not known when he joined the Army but he was later listed as serving as No. 6922005 Rifleman Abram in the Rifle Brigade (the Prince Consort’s Own) and also as a member of No. 2 Commando.

In 1942 he took part in Operation Musketoon. This was a daring, small scale Commando raid on an electricity generating station at Glomfjord in German occupied Norway, just North of the Arctic Circle. The station provided electricity for a nearby aluminium plant, without which the manufacture of the metal would come to a halt. The raiding party comprised two Officers, eight Commandos from No 2 Commando and two Norwegian corporals working for the Special Operations Executive (SOE). They were transported by the Free French Submarine JUNON to a remote, neighbouring fjord.

FFS JUNON sailed from in the Orkney Islands on 11 September 1942 escorted for part of the way by HMS STURGEON, TIGRIS and THUNDERBOLT. On board JUNON were the crew, the twelve Commandos, two rubber dinghies and plus guns, ammunition, explosives and supplies. They were landed at Bjaerangsfjord, immediately south of Glomfjord from where they negotiated a difficult overland route to approach their target from the rear.

Although they destroyed the hydro-electric plant, blowing up the turbines and the water supply pipes to the turbo-generating hall, a heavy price was paid. The team of twelve split up to make to make their escapes however of the Commandos seven were captured in making their escape. They were taken to Germany and, via Colditz Castle to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp where all seven, including Cyril Abram, were executed under the provision of Hitler’s infamous Commando Order, although this was not known until the end of the War.

The other five escaped although one later died of his wounds. Of the other four, one was lost in the Norwegian Submarine UREDD. one died in Italy and only two survived the War. Rifleman Cyril Abram is commemorated on the Brookwood 1939 – 1945 Memorial on Panel 15 Column 1.