Lance Corporal Alfred McMeekin

Alfred McMeekin from Belfast, Northern Ireland had been a policeman before enlisting into the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

He volunteered from airborne forces from the 1st Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in India and undertook parachute training at Air Landing School New Delhi in 1941.

Private McMeekin was posted to 10 Platoon, C Company (Coy) 151 Parachute Battalion, which later re-designated 156 Parachute Battalion.

He went to Egypt, North Africa and Italy before returning to the UK in November 1943.

Lance Corporal McMeekin jumped on Operation Market Garden into Arnhem on the Second Lift on 18 September 1944. He was amongst the 138 men on Operation Pegasus, who escaped from the Arnhem area on the night of 22–23 October 1944.

L/Cpl McMeekin was demobbed in April 1946. He reenlisted into The Royal Artillery TA.

You can read more about L/ Cpl McMeekin and 156 Para Bn in ‘156 Parachute Battalion: From Dehli to Arnhem’ By John O’Reilly 2009, Thoroton Publishing.