Corporal Joseph D Macefield

Joseph Dennis Macefield enlisted into The Parachute Regiment at Birmingham in February 1955.

Pte Macefield passed his parachute jump course at RAF Abingdon in June 1955.

He served with B Company The Second Battalion, The Parachute Regiment (2 PARA) in the UK, Jordan and Cyprus.

Corporal Macefield represented the Battalion in Pentathlon and Athletics and was a keen mountaineer and swimmer. He trained as an assistant Physical Training Instructor.

Reports in the Pegasus Journal January 1958 congratulate him on his ‘outstanding success in cross country'

In 1959 in Cyprus, 2 PARA entered a team into the Island Pentathlon. A team of three members - te 2/Lt J S Morgan, Cpl D Macefield and Pte F Butterfield took part in five disciplines (riding, fencing, swimming, shooting and running). Teams had a choice of riding horses or motorbikes the 2 PARA Team chose horses. They came last in the riding, fifth in Fencing, third in shooting, ninth in swimming and first in running (out of 16 teams). In the running Cpl Macefield was first, 2/Lt Morgan Second, and Pte Butterworth four. Overall the team finished in ninth place.

Pegasus Journal April 1960.

2nd Bn, The Parachute Regiment.

The next sport on the card was the Island Cross-Country Championship on 8th January at Dhekelia. Training or rather selection for this started suitably with a Battalion cross-country run, from which sixteen names were chosen and these immediately started training, opening with a challenge from The 12th Royal Lancers. The Battalion had the first eight runners home and so the training started with a swing, however on the final day we were beaten into second place by the 1st Bn, The Devon and Dorset Regiment over a gruelling course of plough, rock and scrub. Cp! Macefield was the first runner home.

2nd Bn marching competition, each company had to choose eight men under a cpl to march across the country not using any roads an average distance of 60 -65 miles. Cpl Macefield’s B Company came 1st reaching the destination in 27.5 hours ´an incredible performance’

Pegasus Journal July 1960.

2nd Bn, The Parachute Regiment.

MIDDLE EASTERN PENTATHLON CHAMPIONSHIPS. 1960

Result: - 1st- 1st Battalions The Black Watch, 9,844points; 2nd-2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, 9,149 points.

Behind these cold figures lies the story of a great deal of hard work on the part of five members of the Battalion, only one of whom had previously taken part in a Pentathlon competition, and the final result must be a source of satisfaction to all concerned.

It was decided early on in the year that the Battalion would enter a team of three, plus one individual entry to contest the five events (riding, fencing, swimming, shooting and running), and, at the beginning of March full-time training was started by-Cpl. Macefield (" B " Company), Pte. Pollington (S.P. Company), L./Cpl. Connel and Pte. Jones (H.Q. Company) under the captaincy of Lieut. Rothnie. The training programme entailed hard physical work, and although swimming at Kyrenia evoked some envy, the people concerned were themselves apparently loath to test the temperature of the sea in March. In the middle of March the team attended a fencing course at the Middle East School of P.T., and in between swimming and fencing the team shot, ran and motor cycled assiduously. A word of explanation here we had chosen motor cycles as our mounts in preference to horses after our disastrous experiences with the latter in the 1959 competition, although in the event the machines were to prove every bit as temperamental as their equine equivalents. So on through April until on the 1st May the team joined five others, and 30 individual entrants for the competition at Dhekelia.

Each of the five events carried a maximum of 1,000 points for achieving a certain standard, plus or minus points for the time taken, so that in effect therefore, it was a competition against clocks rather than against other people. The first day went badly for us, and allowed our most dangerous rivals the Black Watch to gain a considerable lead (1,072 points) over us. However in the next two days we did extremely well, providing not only the winning teams in the fencing and shooting events but also the winning individuals in the persons of Pte. Jones and Lieut. Rothnie. By so doing we reduced the Black Watch's lead to only 200 points, and still had what we thought to be our strongest events, namely swimming and running, in hand. Unfortunately we did not come up to expectations during the swimming, and finished second to the Black Watch, who thereby gained an unassailable lead which our easy victory in the running on the last day could not erase. We congratulate all of the team on a really first-class effort, particularly L./Cpl. Connel and Pte. Jones who deferred their release in order to be able to stay on and compete for the Battalion. Out of a total of 30 entries, Lieut. Rothnie was second, Cpl. Macefield fourth, L./Cpl. Connel eighth and Pte. Jones ninth, whilst Pollington, though not officially competing due to an administrative error, did extremely well and is one of our strong hopes for next year when, it goes without saying, we shall win !!

Note also in the same issue: Cpl Macefield is reported as having run in the Western Area Champions

Pegasus Journal January 1961.

2nd Bn, The Parachute Regiment.

B  COMPANY

There have been some sad departures since our last edition: C./Sgt. Goodall, Sgt. Butters, Sgt. McKenna, Cpl. Macefield, Cpl. Kitching, Pte. Hopkinson and Lieut. White. We are not quite sure yet whether we have lost Capt. Rymer-Jones. With Cpl. Macefield's departure a lot of Battalion sports reps. will have to think again. Few men have given such service to the Company and to the Battalion as he. To all these we wish good luck.

Cpl Macefield left the regiment in Nov 1960