Private John M Hamilton

John Mallon Hamilton was born on the 5 March 1918, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. [1]

Enlisted into The Royal Warwickshire Regiment on the 9 March 1936. [2]

He was serving with the 1st Bn, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment in India in 1942, when he volunteered for Airborne Forces and joined the 151 Parachute Battalion at New Delhi. He did Parachute Course no 24, which started on the 16 August 1942, and completed the required number of parachute descents to qualify as an Army Parachutist. [3]

As a member of the Signals Platoon, 156 Parachute Battalion, and a member of the Pathfinder Force, he took off in a Dakota (C/N: 147) of the 61st Troop Carrier Group, USAAF from Barkston Heath aerodrome on Sunday, 17 September 1944. He was bound for DZ ‘X’ near Renkum in Holland as part of Operation ‘Market-Garden’. His task, with the rest of the Pathfinder’s, was to move to DZ ‘Y’ at Ginkel Heath and mark the RV for the rest of his battalion, flying in the next day.

This task carried out, with great difficulty in the face of much enemy opposition, the 156 Parachute Battalion now moved towards Arnhem via the track north of the railway line through Wolfheze. On Tuesday, 19 September the battalion attacked a strong German blocking line to the north of Oosterbeek, along the Dreijenseweg. This attack failed and the remnants of the battalion had to fall back towards Wolfheze and then fight their way into the Oosterbeek perimeter.

Private John Mallon was wounded during this period and taken prisoner. He was taken to the St. Joseph Psychiatric Hospital at Apeldoorn for treatment, but died of his wounds overnight on the 21/22 September 1944. He was buried in grave 1 of the adjacent cemetery.

In November 1945 his remains were reburied in the Arnhem/Oosterbeek War Cemetery, 23. B. 5.

The son of John and Margaret Mallon Hamilton, of Belfast, Northern Ireland; husband of Robertena Hamilton, of Belfast, he was 26 years old when he was killed.

NOTES:

[1] German POW and Casualty Card. 22 September 1944. Courtesy of John Howes.

[2] The Parachute Regiment, Transfer & Enlistment Book 01, page 11.

[3] Parachute Course Report, RAF New Delhi. August 1942.