Le- it's a shame about the distribution of VCs in many cases; I feel there were many such cases also at Casino and in Korea.
My stepfather was an 18 year man with HLI. He survived Dunkirk, and when I was a kid he said it was due to the bravest guy he knew - a guy called Martin Jamieson, battalion middleweight champion. He insisted on fighting a rear guard action for the rest, and was left holding a road in a shell scrape with a bren. That was the last he saw of him.
In october 1953 , when I was 18, my family were at the annual HLI re-union and the Duke of Yorks, when my stepfather suddenly went as white as a sheet. He was staring at a kilted figure coming through the main doors. 'A ghost' he told me 'It's Jamieson.' This guy looked just like the Beau Geste scar-faced sergeant, and was indeed a sergeant. He told my stepfather the story - he had done his job but got shot up in the process and one leg was held together by 15 screws. He had been taken prisoner and served the rest of the war as a prisoner. This was Jamieson MM.
He caught up with me later in gents. 'I hear you are going to the depot at Maryhill, (Glasgow) next week,' says he. 'Well - I train one of the two squads there, and I am now gonna give you the best advice you'll ever
get - don't be in my squad!' So much for old mates!
Anyway, of course I did end up in his squad, and he never mentioned any of that again - in fact he never spoke to me again, except to shout orders. After 3 months I joined the 1st Bn, and I never met him again.
But I never forgot him - Martin Jamieson MM.
