John
was born in Inverness, Scotland on 10th October 1924. He joined the Cameroon
Highlanders as a regular soldier in December 1943 and became a qualified
parachutist in June 1944.
He was posted to 7
Parachute Battalion, which was part of 5th Para Brigade in 6th Airborne
Division. At that time his Battalion was heavily engaged in Normandy
following the invasion of the Continent. The policy was to avoid sending
recently trained men as reinforcements, because it would be wasteful if
they became casualties in a ground role.
Consequently John was
not able to join his Battalion until their return in early September 1944.
He was, however, in time for the hasty move at Christmas to block the German
Ardennes offensive !
The next major
Airborne operation for the 6th Division was the crossing of the Rhine in
March 1945 and John took part in this and was wounded. He returned to the UK
in May 1945. The Division was then intended to be used in the Far east
against Japan and the 5th Brigade was sent in advance to India and was in
training there when the atomic bomb was dropped.
The following periods
were both difficult and distasteful; in Java trying to restore the Dutch and
then in Palestine trying to control Arabs and Jews.
At this period
John transferred to the Military Police and joined the Provost Company of 16
Independent Para Brigade. His Army service came to a total of 12
years up to 1955.
