History - those who came before

History - those who came before Helping to preserve the history of those who came before
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🌺 “He Married The Love Of His Life… Three Weeks Later He Left For The Falklands. He Never Came Home. The Story of Lance ...
30/08/2026

🌺 “He Married The Love Of His Life… Three Weeks Later He Left For The Falklands. He Never Came Home. The Story of Lance Corporal Nigel Robert Smith, 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment.” 🌺

Lance Corporal Nigel Robert Smith was born in Cheltenham on 16 August 1960 and grew up alongside his two brothers. As a teenager, he decided upon a military career, joining the Parachute Regiment as a Junior Soldier before completing the demanding training required to earn the coveted maroon beret.

Over the next six years, Nigel served with distinction, including operational tours in Northern Ireland. By 1982, he had risen to the rank of Lance Corporal and was serving with D Company, 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment.

Behind the uniform was a young man deeply loved by his family and friends. Nigel was known for carrying lucky charms wherever he went. Among them were a horseshoe from his wedding cake and an engraved cigarette lighter given to him by the woman he loved.

Wendy first met Nigel at a friend’s party. He had become covered in mud while taking part in party games, yet still managed to ask her out the following day. Wendy later laughed that when they met again, he had not even washed all the mud from around his ears.

Their relationship quickly blossomed. They became engaged at Christmas and originally intended to marry after Nigel returned from a six-month deployment to Belize. However, as tensions continued to rise between Britain and Argentina, Nigel asked for the wedding to be brought forward.

On 3 April 1982, Nigel and Wendy were married at St John’s Church in Upper Hale.

Although he was entitled to leave, the newlyweds never enjoyed a honeymoon. Nigel instead returned to barracks to complete promotion examinations for his corporal’s cadre. Just twenty-four days after their wedding, he sailed south with 2 PARA as part of the British task force sent to liberate the Falkland Islands.

Before leaving, Nigel often spoke about the possibility that he might not return. Wendy believed it was simply his naturally pessimistic way of preparing for the worst. He told her that coming home would be “a bonus.”

Yet during the long voyage south, something appeared to change. Wendy remembered Nigel becoming increasingly cheerful in his letters. He seemed to grow in confidence and maturity, and she later said: “He became a man overnight.”

On 28 May 1982, 2 PARA launched its assault against the heavily defended Argentine positions surrounding Darwin and Goose Green. The battalion advanced across open ground while exposed to relentless machine-gun, mortar and sniper fire.

During the closing stages of the battle, D Company moved towards Goose Green itself. Lieutenant James Barry advanced after what appeared to be an Argentine offer of surrender. Instead, heavy gunfire suddenly erupted.

Lieutenant Barry was killed. Corporal Paul Sullivan was fatally wounded. Lance Corporal Nigel Robert Smith was also struck by small-arms fire and killed.

He was just twenty-one years old.

The following day, the Argentine garrison surrendered. Goose Green became the first major British land victory of the Falklands War and a turning point in the campaign.

For the nation, it was a victory. For Wendy, it meant that the young husband she had watched sail to war only three weeks after their wedding would never come home.

Following the war, Nigel was repatriated to Britain and laid to rest at Aldershot Military Cemetery. His headstone bears the deeply personal family inscription:

“A Soldier
For Peace And Love He Died
Forever In Our Hearts.”

Today, more than four decades after you made the ultimate sacrifice, Lance Corporal Nigel Robert Smith, you are remembered not only as one of the young Paratroopers who fought and died at Goose Green, but as a beloved son, brother and husband whose life with the woman he loved had only just begun.

You are still not forgotten.

🌺 Lest We Forget — Lance Corporal Nigel Robert Smith, 24428703, D Company, 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment. Killed at Goose Green in the Falkland Islands on 28 May 1982, aged just 21. 🌺

📸 Lance Corporal Nigel Robert Smith during his service with the Parachute Regiment, alongside a treasured photograph from his wedding day and his grave at Aldershot Military Cemetery, where the Parachute Regiment emblem and his family’s loving inscription preserve the memory of a young husband and soldier who never returned from the Falklands.

30/08/2026

🌺 “He Had Already Been Wounded Three Times. Twenty Days After Returning To The Front, Thomas Harris Went Forward Against The Machine Guns — And Never Came Back.” 🌺

Thomas James Harris was a cement-works labourer from Halling, Kent, when the First World War began.

On 27 August 1914, aged 22, he enlisted in the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment.

Less than a year later, he was in France with the 6th Battalion.

The war would leave its mark on him again and again.

In February 1916, Thomas was wounded for the first time.

He recovered, returned to his battalion and continued serving.

Then came the Somme.

On 2 July 1916, Thomas was struck by shell fragments and seriously wounded.

He was evacuated back to Britain, where he spent weeks in hospital while fragments were removed from his body.

It would be almost eleven months before he returned to France.

But he did return.

By 1918, Thomas had been at war for nearly four years.

He had risen from private soldier to sergeant and had been awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field.

Then, on 1 July 1918, he was wounded again.

This time shell fragments struck his hands.

It was his third known wound of the war.

On 20 July, Thomas rejoined his battalion.

Twenty days later, he was dead.

On 9 August 1918, during the great Allied advance on the Somme, the 6th Royal West Kents attacked German positions near Morlancourt.

Machine-gun teams were hidden among the standing crops and shell holes.

Their fire began cutting into the advancing British soldiers.

Thomas acted.

Leading his section forward, he attacked one of the machine-gun positions, captured it and killed seven enemy soldiers.

The battalion pushed on.

Then another machine gun opened fire.

Thomas went forward again.

He silenced it.

But there was still another gun ahead.

Thomas’s platoon commander, Second Lieutenant Sidney Upfold, began crawling towards the position, intending to rush it.

When he was ready to attack, he realised someone had followed him.

It was Thomas.

He had not been ordered forward.

He had simply refused to let his officer face the machine gun alone.

Together they rose and charged.

Almost immediately, Thomas was hit.

Upfold was beside him when he fell.

Thomas died within moments, his final thoughts turning to the mother and father waiting for him back home in Halling.

He was 26 years old.

His actions that evening helped keep the battalion moving forward when enemy machine guns threatened to stop the attack and inflict even greater casualties.

For what he did at Morlancourt, Thomas James Harris was awarded the Victoria Cross.

He never lived to receive it.

His Victoria Cross was later presented by King George V to his grieving parents at Buckingham Palace.

Thomas had left Halling in 1914 as an ordinary labourer.

Four years later, after three wounds, years of fighting and repeated returns to the front, he gave his life while going forward beside another man because he would not let him go alone.

More than a century later, his Victoria Cross and Military Medal remain in Kent.

And in Halling, the name Thomas Harris is still remembered.

Not simply because of the medal he was awarded.

But because of what he did to earn it.

🌺 Lest We Forget — Sergeant Thomas James Harris VC, MM
G/358
6th Battalion, The Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment)
9 August 1918
Aged 26 🌺

🌺 At just 19 years old, Donald “Don” Turrell was badly wounded in Normandy — but for the next 82 years, he never forgot ...
30/08/2026

🌺 At just 19 years old, Donald “Don” Turrell was badly wounded in Normandy — but for the next 82 years, he never forgot the men who did not come home.

Don had lied about his age to join the British Army at 17, even writing a false letter of parental permission so he could serve.

By June 1944, he was with A Company, 9th Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), fighting in Normandy.

Only months earlier, his older brother Leslie had been killed when HMS Penelope was torpedoed.

Then, on 26 June, Don’s battalion went into the brutal fighting of Operation Epsom.

Three Cameronians whose deaths stayed with him for the rest of his life — William Carr, Thomas Freeburn and Robert Bremner — were killed.

Don later recalled volunteering to recover their bodies, removing their identification tags and helping bury them in temporary battlefield graves.

The following day, in the middle of the battle, Don turned 19.

On 10 July 1944, during the fighting around Éterville in Operation Jupiter, Don was badly wounded on the left side of his body by machine-gun, mortar and shell fire.

Despite his injuries, he used his rifle as a makeshift crutch and tried to make his way back towards the evacuation point.

He survived.

But he never returned to combat.

His wounds led to years of treatment and rehabilitation, and the pain remained with him for the rest of his life.

In later years, Don returned again and again to Normandy.

Not for recognition.
Not for reward.
But to remember.

He stood at the graves of Carr, Freeburn and Bremner — the men whose names had stayed with him for eight decades.

On 28 August 2026, Donald Turrell died aged 101, surrounded by his family.

He had been given a lifetime those men never had, and he spent much of it making sure they were not forgotten.

That is a powerful part of Don Turrell’s legacy: he survived the war, carried its wounds for life, and kept the memory of the fallen alive.

Rest in peace, Rifleman Donald “Don” Turrell.

Lest We Forget. 🌺

A routine stolen-car call became the final act of PC Gerald “Ged” Walker’s life — and showed exactly what kind of police...
30/08/2026

A routine stolen-car call became the final act of PC Gerald “Ged” Walker’s life — and showed exactly what kind of police officer he was.

On 7 January 2003, Ged was just hours from finishing his shift when he was called to Bulwell with his police dog, Kai.

A wanted man had abandoned a stolen car and fled.

The search led Ged to St Alban’s Road, where the man seized control of a taxi with its driver still inside.

Ged ran to the driver’s door.

He reached through the partially open window and tried to pull the keys from the ignition.

He could not get them out.

The taxi accelerated.

Ged was dragged for around 100 yards before being thrown into a bollard, suffering catastrophic head injuries.

Two days later, he died.

He was 42.

This was not the first time Ged had put himself between another person and danger. In 1990, he received a judge’s commendation after saving the life of a person attempting su***de.

By then, he had served Nottinghamshire Police for around 24 years, including 16 years as a police dog handler.

But Ged’s story did not end on that road.

His widow, Tracy, refused to accept unanswered questions about why the offender had been free despite repeated breaches of his release conditions.

Her persistence helped bring about a government inquiry. Failings were identified, recommendations were accepted, and changes followed in how released offenders were supervised, recalled and communicated about between agencies.

Ged’s name still serves.

The Ged Walker Award recognises officers who show exceptional bravery and dedication to protecting the public. The police dog kennels at Nottinghamshire Police headquarters also bear his name.

In 2024, he was named among the first recipients of the Elizabeth Emblem, recognising public servants who lose their lives in the course of duty.

Ged Walker went to work that morning expecting to come home.

Instead, one decision to intervene became his final act of service — and his family made sure his death changed more than their own lives.

Police Constable Gerald Michael “Ged” Walker.
Nottinghamshire Police.
Remembered with honour.

Lest We Forget.

On Christmas Eve 2007, a buried IED took three of Mark Ormrod’s limbs — but it did not take his future.Marine Mark Ormro...
29/08/2026

On Christmas Eve 2007, a buried IED took three of Mark Ormrod’s limbs — but it did not take his future.

Marine Mark Ormrod was serving with 40 Commando in Helmand when, returning from a patrol near Forward Operating Base Robinson, he stepped on an improvised explosive device.

The blast was catastrophic.

Both legs were amputated above the knee. His right arm was amputated above the elbow. He was twice pronounced clinically dead.

And he survived.

Mark became the first British serviceman to survive a triple amputation sustained during the Afghanistan conflict.

Recovery meant repeated surgery, rehabilitation and learning how to live again in a body changed forever. He was warned that walking on prosthetic legs could be so exhausting that life might instead centre around a wheelchair.

Mark refused to let that prediction define what came next.

On 14 May 2008, less than five months after the blast, he walked roughly 30 metres on prosthetic legs at 40 Commando’s Afghanistan medal parade to stand alongside his comrades.

Then he kept going.

On 9 June 2009, a date he calls his “Independence Day”, Mark stopped routinely using a wheelchair.

But even that was not the summit.

He went on to represent Team UK at the Invictus Games, winning 11 medals, including four golds. He took on endurance challenges, helped raise more than £500,000 for REORG in 2021, wrote his story and was appointed MBE for services to the Royal Marines and veterans.

Again and again, when life placed another obstacle in front of him, Mark found a way to climb higher.

Not by pretending the injury had not changed his life.

But by refusing to let it set the limit of what his life could become.

Today, Mark Ormrod MBE is still pushing forward — as a veteran, athlete, fundraiser, speaker, husband and father.

His story is not simply one of survival.

It is what happened after survival that makes it so powerful.

Just days before he was due to come home from Afghanistan, Lance Corporal Jamie Webb was mortally wounded defending the ...
29/08/2026

Just days before he was due to come home from Afghanistan, Lance Corporal Jamie Webb was mortally wounded defending the patrol base where he had spent his final tour looking after the soldiers around him.

Jamie was only 24, but he had already completed four operational deployments — Northern Ireland, Iraq and two tours of Afghanistan.

He had earned responsibility early.

During his first Afghan tour in 2010, while still a private, he was trusted to serve as a rifle section second-in-command — a junior commander’s role before he even held junior NCO rank.

His performance led to promotion to Lance Corporal.

By his second tour, Jamie was doing two demanding jobs at once: helping lead soldiers on the ground as a section second-in-command, while also working as his company’s intelligence collator.

But those who served with him remembered more than his ability.

They remembered the man who checked on his soldiers.

The man people could approach when they were struggling.

The man one officer described as “constant morale.”

On 25 March 2013, Patrol Base Folad in Nad ‘Ali was hit by a vehicle-borne bomb and a coordinated insurgent assault.

C Company fought to hold the position.

Jamie was critically wounded during the attack.

He survived long enough to be taken for medical treatment, but on 26 March 2013 he died from his wounds in an ISAF hospital in Afghanistan.

He was 24 years old.

His story did not end there.

His name was placed on the Bastion memorial. A road was later named Jamie Webb Drive. In Handforth, his death helped inspire a wider memorial to remember generations of local servicemen and women.

And more than a decade later, his family and former comrades still make sure his name is spoken.

Jamie Webb is remembered not simply because he served in war, but because of the kind of soldier he was within it — trusted to lead, relied upon to think, and remembered for looking after those beside him.

Lance Corporal Jamie Jonathan Webb, 1st Battalion The Mercian Regiment.

Remembered with pride. Remembered with respect.

Lest We Forget.

On 10 July 2009, Corporal Lee “Scotty” Scott was exactly where his soldiers said he always chose to be — at the front.Ju...
29/08/2026

On 10 July 2009, Corporal Lee “Scotty” Scott was exactly where his soldiers said he always chose to be — at the front.

Just north of Nad-e Ali in Helmand Province, Lee was leading a section of Viking armoured vehicles during Operation Panther’s Claw when an IED struck the lead element.

He was killed aged 26.

Lee had been in Afghanistan for only around five weeks, but by then he had already built an exceptional Army career.

He joined the British Army in 2002, served in Kosovo and Iraq, was promoted ahead of his peers and selected unusually early for the Challenger 2 Crew Commander’s Course.

By 25, he was a Corporal with 2nd Royal Tank Regiment.

But the detail his comrades remembered most was not a qualification or promotion.

It was how he led.

Lee expected nothing from his men that he would not do himself.

And on his final patrol, he was leading from the front.

Behind the soldier was a husband and father.

Lee had married Nikki in 2008. Their son Kai was five when he was killed. Their daughter Brooke was just seven months old.

His death left a family facing a loss that would shape their lives.

But from that loss came something remarkable.

After friends raised money for a memorial bench, around £5,000 was left over. Nikki wanted it to help children from military families who had suffered the death of a parent.

In August 2010, she founded Scotty’s Little Soldiers — named after Lee’s Army nickname.

Kai and Brooke became its first members.

What began as one family’s attempt to bring happiness back into bereaved children’s lives grew into a national charity supporting hundreds of young people affected by military bereavement.

That is part of Lee Scott’s legacy too.

A soldier who rose quickly through the ranks.

A leader who placed himself where the danger was greatest.

A husband and father whose name continues to help children he never had the chance to meet.

Corporal Lee “Scotty” Scott, 2nd Royal Tank Regiment.

Killed in Afghanistan, 10 July 2009.

Remember his service.

Remember his family.

Remember the legacy carried forward in his name.

Lest We Forget.

When Fusilier Lee Rigby was laid to rest, one of the men carrying his coffin was his close friend, Corporal Dean Corbett...
28/08/2026

When Fusilier Lee Rigby was laid to rest, one of the men carrying his coffin was his close friend, Corporal Dean Corbett.

For Dean, that duty was far more than ceremonial.

The two men had served together in 2nd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, and Lee was described as one of Dean’s closest friends.

Dean joined the Army at 19 and built a career his family were proud of.

He served operationally in Afghanistan in 2009, trained in Kenya and Jordan, qualified as a Regimental Signal Detachment Commander and rose to Corporal.

But Afghanistan left its mark.

His mother later recalled that he returned more anxious and on edge, and the inquest into his death heard that he had lost soldiers close to him during his service.

Then, in May 2013, Lee Rigby was murdered in Woolwich.

Dean flew home with fellow Fusiliers.

At Lee’s funeral, he helped carry his friend’s coffin into Bury Parish Church.

A final act of duty for a man he knew personally.

The loss had a profound effect on him.

Dean continued serving, later transferring to 1st Battalion, before leaving the Army in 2017 with what the coroner described as a glowing reference.

Civilian life was harder.

He endured marriage breakdown, family bereavements and worsening mental health. By 2020 he was experiencing flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, and had been referred for psychological support.

He was also battling co***ne dependency.

On 16 August 2020, Dean died aged just 32. The coroner concluded that he died from heart failure contributed to by long-term co***ne use.

Behind the rank and uniform was a father, son, brother, friend and former soldier whose family said there was rarely a dull moment when he was around.

His son Lewis remained one of the strongest anchors in his life.

Dean Corbett should be remembered not only as the Fusilier who carried Lee Rigby’s coffin, but as a man with his own service, his own losses and his own story.

A friend who helped carry another soldier home — and who carried far more afterwards than most people could see.

Rest in peace, Corporal Dean Corbett.

Lest We Forget.

Captain William David Watson was just eight days from coming home to his pregnant wife and two-year-old daughter when he...
28/08/2026

Captain William David Watson was just eight days from coming home to his pregnant wife and two-year-old daughter when he was killed by a booby-trap bomb in South Armagh.

His second child was due within about two weeks.

He would never meet that baby.

Watson was 28 years old, a Captain in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, and already an experienced soldier.

Years earlier, in Aden, he had been one of the young officers leading dangerous night reconnaissance patrols into and around Crater as British forces prepared to retake the district.

The intelligence gathered on those patrols helped shape the operation that followed.

For his service in South Arabia, Watson was Mentioned in Despatches for Gallant Conduct.

He had also served in Borneo.

By 1972, his war was in Northern Ireland.

On 20 November, Watson and Colour Sergeant James Struthers approached a derelict farmhouse near Cullyhanna, South Armagh.

The building was already suspected of being dangerous. A patrol had found what appeared to be a concealed rifle butt and ammunition, and technical specialists were expected to examine it.

Shortly after 8am, Watson and Struthers entered the farmhouse.

A concealed booby-trap bomb exploded.

The building was torn apart.

Their comrades rushed to the wreckage and pulled at it with their bare hands, desperately trying to reach the two men.

Neither could be saved.

Eight days later, the Argylls' tour ended.

The battalion went home.

William did not.

Behind the rank and the uniform was a husband and father whose family was waiting for him — a little girl of two, a wife close to giving birth, and a second child who would come into the world without ever knowing him.

Captain William David Watson MiD had already served in Borneo, led men into danger in Aden and been formally recognised for gallant conduct.

But perhaps the most painful measure of what was lost on 20 November 1972 is much simpler.

A family was waiting for him to come home.

He never did.

We remember Captain William David Watson MiD.

Lest We Forget. 🌹

After an explosion tore away his leg and shattered his body, Peter Norton was still trying to stop other men walking int...
28/08/2026

After an explosion tore away his leg and shattered his body, Peter Norton was still trying to stop other men walking into danger.

On 24 July 2005, Captain Peter Allen Norton was investigating a deadly IED attack in Baghdad.

Four American soldiers had already been killed.

Believing there could be a secondary device nearby, Norton ordered his team to stay back.

He went forward alone.

Then his foot triggered a buried pressure switch.

The blast tore away his left leg, devastated his left arm and struck his body with blast and fragments.

Yet he remained conscious.

As his team moved towards him, Norton warned them where they could — and could not — safely step.

Even lying grievously wounded, he was still doing the job.

His warning mattered.

Another IED was later found less than ten metres from where he had fallen.

And this was not the first time Norton had faced extreme danger during that tour.

Weeks earlier, he had continued examining a bombing scene while under RPG attack.

He had found that the detonators on a supposedly safe su***de vest were still connected — and rendered it safe by hand.

On another operation, he spotted a concealed secondary mine and cleared those around him.

For these actions, and for what he did after being wounded, Peter Norton was awarded the George Cross.

His injuries eventually cost him both legs and his left forearm.

But they did not end his service.

He returned to military work, became a lecturer, was promoted to Major and completed roughly 30 years in the Army.

He later helped campaign for accommodation for families visiting severely wounded servicemen, helping create SSAFA’s Norton House, and continued supporting veterans.

Peter Norton’s legacy is not simply that he survived.

It is that, when he had every reason to think only of himself, he was still protecting the people coming to save him.

Major Peter Allen Norton GC has carried that same sense of service into the decades since.

His story deserves to be known.

His service deserves our respect.

Major Peter Allen Norton GC — an extraordinary example of courage, duty and sacrifice.

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