Padre John Gwinnett MC

Padre John Gwinnett MC was born in Gloucester on January 9, 1916, as the younger of two brothers. He attended the Crypt School, where he was a full back in the Rugby XV and was in the cricket team. Following this he attended Leeds University where he completed a degree in Classics.

In December 1940, Gwinnett was ordained at Gloucester Cathedral (Church of England). For two years he served as the Curate of All Saints Church, Cheltenham, balancing this with a position teaching Classics at Cheltenham Ladies College. But he increasingly felt his religious training could be put to better use at the front lines. It was for this reason he signed up to the RAChD, becoming a Chaplain to the Forces, 4th Class on November 28, 1942. He immediately joined the airborne forces, being posted as the Padre of the 9th Parachute Battalion. 

Normandy

Gwinnett was described in one obituary as "courageous and completely fearless". Throughout his time with the 9th Battalion, he demonstrated these qualities repeatedly. Shortly before the invasion of Normandy on June 4, Gwinnett was present at a flag-dedication ceremony for a 9th Bn flag sewn by the Women's Voluntary Service at Oxford. Here, he blessed the flag, uttering the immortal words "fear knocked at the door, Faith opened it, and there was nothing there". In a few days time, the men under his care would undertake one of the most dangerous tasks in the entire Operation. They were tasked with destroying the Merville Gun Battery, home to four 150mm howitzers which could fire 8 miles, thereby endangering Sword beach which was just 3 miles away. 

When the 9th Battalion jumped into Normandy, the flag was carried by Gordon Newton of the G-B Force. It was to prove a powerful symbol for the Battalion both there and during Operation Varsity, the airborne assault over the Rhine. But in France, Gwinnett had actually dropped way wide of his objective, having to march fifteen miles to reach Brigade Headquarters. He immediately got to work collecting casualties and helped to save twenty wounded men trapped in a large house - the Haras de Retz - from falling into the wrong hands. As Napier Crookenden recalled in 1947:

"The padre, the Reverend John Gwinnett, dropped some miles East of the dropping zone. After a search of the neighbourhood he collected a few men of the battalion and led them Westwards through enemy territory towards the British lines. After fifteen hours marching across country, in the course of which they were fired on by several German positions, he found brigade headquarters at Le Mesnil late on D day. Here the padre learnt that the 9th Battalion had had to leave 20 wounded men in a large house near the Merville battery [Haras de Retz] after the assault in the early morning. He at once borrowed a captured German car and together with Private Allt of the battalion drove off to Merville. The roads were badly cratered and the whole area was in a state of confusion, most of his route lying through territory in enemy hands. In spite of this he reached the aid post at 8 pm and eventually succeeded in clearing all the wounded that night back to the main dressing station in Ranville. But for his prompt and determined action all the wounded would have fallen into enemy hands and Captain Hudson, the Battalion adjutant, would not have been operated on in time to save his life."

The episode was later related in greater detail by the men involved in Neil Barber's The Day the Devils Dropped In (pages 122-126). One of the injured helped by the Padre was Tom Stroud: 

"We were near the Chateau St Come when we met the Padre in a captured German vehicle with hundreds of bullet holes in it. The padre asked about the more seriously wounded we had left earlier, before directing us to the shortest route to Brigade HQ and the field hospital, before he set off to collect the wounded"

On reaching the Haras de Retz at 6 PM, Gwinnett himself recalled: 

"Shall I ever forget linking up with CSMI Bill Harrold...his parting crack to me when he left Broadwell was, 'See you on the other side Padre, I'll have a cup of tea waiting for you!' It was some eighteen hours later that I found him near the Battery with a couple of dozen wounded; they were being looked after by one of our medical orderlies and a German. Bill Harold had been shot through both arms and hands. We were loading some of the wounded in a captured vehicle when he came towards me muttering, 'Your tea Padre.' He was holding a mess tin in his teeth. Unashamedly the tears came into my eyes". 

At this point Gwinnett picked up Major Bestley and three other wounded, taking all the space available. But he later returned with Private Allt in the German Morris truck to save Major Parry, Lieutenant Jefferson, Walter Johnson and Hal Hudson from a slow decline. Hal Hudson thought he was sure to die and was clinging to Jefferson's hand for life. The next part of the journey was covered by Major Allen Parry:

"We nearly ran into an ambush en route and sheltered for half an hour at a Chateau in which refugees had collected. Hal was taken out of the car but nothing could be done for him. A French doctor there had lost all his belongings, including his instruments, as a result of the Allied bombing. A woman in the Chateau hastily made us a Red Cross flag which we gave to a German orderly to hold. We placed him on the nose of the vehicle as a precaution. We hoped, by this, to avoid getting shot at should we encounter an ambush. As luck would have it, we had no trouble and arrived at the Main Dressing Station [Chateau de Mesnil] at 2130". 

On reaching the dressing station, some of the wounded including Stroud and Hudson had to be operated on. Hudson still held little hope of survival, with the doctor at one point giving "a tiny shake of the head as if to say Hudson would not live". But he made a remarkable recovery, and was grateful to Gwinnett and the doctors for the rest of his life:

"Naturally, they did not expect me to live and I was put with the others in a similar case. John [Gwinnett], what a marvellous man he was, came up to do what was necessary for a person who was a member of his church. Fortunately, he was accustomed to miracles. He never turned a hair when, clad only in a string vest and swathed in bandages, I said, 'Where is the loo?' and John said 'Just spend a penny where you will, nobody will mind' I did'. 

Hal Hudson survived the war and later became chairman of Lloyds of London.

In the early morning of June 7, Gwinnett returned once more to the Haras de Retz to retrieve more of the Allied wounded back to the dressing station.

On June 8, following a skirmish in the Bois des Monts, Gwinnett's services as part of the casualty evacuation service were called upon once again, this time for the wounded Germans. He set out on a jeep from the dressing station with Captain Johnston and Private Bramwell. This time, Gwinnett sat on the jeep's bonnet with a Red Cross flag, causing a paratrooper to comment "Don't matter. Jerry don't recognize no f.... Red Cross". They arrived to a picture of devastation which had a profound effect on young Bramwell. Gwinnett and the others helped the 12 German survivors back to safety. 

Later, one of the medical evacuation jeeps, which were by now shuttling continuously between the woods and the dressing station, was stopped by Germans who captured the driver, Eddie Easlea. Unfortunately for Gwinnett, his communion set was in the jeep at the time. 

On June 9, Gwinnett was with 3 section of the Field Ambulance when they discovered a wounded Canadian Major in a cottage. He had been shot by a sniper, who was still aiming at the front door. Therefore, the party broke through a wall using a piece of timber, and loaded the Canadian in their jeep, who was whisked away. Unfortunately, their transport did not return as promised. Thereafter, Gwinnett and the others crawled to the Regimental Aid Post, which was in a bungalow and tool shed in the Bois des Monts.  

On June 10, a heavy attack was put in from the Chateau St Come area featuring at least two Panzer IV tanks. This was repelled, with the Germans suffering heavy losses and one of the tanks being temporarily disabled. But there were now hundreds of rotting German corpses, as well as the dead horses in the Chateau stables. For this reason, 9th Battalion's Commanding Officer Otway attempted to negotiate a truce. "My German was reasonable enough. All they did was shoot at me", he recalled. So the task fell to Gwinnett, who emerged with a white flag, as Otway describes, "He had it on a pole to start with and he took it out in front, out into the battlefield and waved it in front of the Germans. He was very brave. When we were collecting wounded and dead, we collected wounded irrespective of whose side they were on. The Germans did stop shooting except for one fool who fired and that was when John Gwinnett, standing up there, turned around and said in the most un-parson like language, 'You stupid bugger. Can't you see my bloody dog collar!". 

Early on June 12, a relative break in the fighting finally gave the 9th Battalion the chance to bury some of its dead near the Regimental Aid Post. Gwinnett oversaw the ceremony, which was described by Ernie Rooke-Matthews:

"Under the Padre's leadership, comrades who were killed were treated with utmost respect...The Padre gave every man a Christian burial, with some of the man's comrades breaking off from the action to pay homage. These services were family services, not military, very simple, most sincere". 

From noon onwards, the fighting had restarted and was intensifying. Fierce attacks were made against the Black Watch and Middlesex men in the Chateau itself, whilst the 9th Battalion was dug in across the road in the woods. Confused, demoralised and wounded Black Watch men were streaming through the lines of the paratroopers. Meanwhile, Germans were pouring in from the east and a few now occupied a barn in the Battalion perimeter. At this moment, Gwinnett marched out  the Bois des Monts gate and nailed the 9th Battalion flag to a tree in an act of defiance. It was an action which was witnessed by a number of the embattled paratroopers, and toughened their resolve to hold the area at all costs. Napier Crookenden praised Gwinnett particularly for this action:

"The small Black Watch garrison in the Chateau still held out in spite of point blank fire from tanks and S.P. guns and their stubborn resistance soon resulted in the enemy switching his main effort towards the 9th Battalion and Bois de Mont. It was about this time that John Gwinnett, the padre, nailed the Battle Flag to a tree near battalion headquarters. Its effect on everybody was immediate and remarkable and his action was timely in view of the depression caused by the stream of wounded and demoralised men passing through the battalion position". 

During a fierce six days of fighting in Normandy, Padre Gwinnett had helped to gather hundreds of dead and wounded, 183 of which were evacuated from the Regimental Aid Post. By June 12, the wounded and dead were so numerous that they lay side by side in the bungalow garden, in some cases even being piled up. 

Rhine Crossing

In March 1945, Gwinnett brought the 9th Battalion's flag into Germany proper. Already widely admired by his peers, Gwinnett threw himself into the vanguard once again during Operation Varsity, and he was later recommended for the Military Cross by Brigadier Hill, which was awarded on the 11th of October 1945. His citation follows:

"For outstanding gallantry and devotion to duty from 24 March to 30 April, 1945, from Schneppenberg Forest to R. Elbe. 

The Rev. Gwinnett made his second operational drop which was over the Rhine on March 24 1945. The Bde sustained many casualties on the DZ which was for many hours covered by artillery, mortar and machine gun fire. Throughout the period the Rev Gwinnett showed completed contempt of danger in organising the evacuation of the casualties and administering the dying. His calmness and fine example under heavy fire proved an inspiration to all who saw him. 

During the advance to the Elbe, in any action that the Bn fought, such as at Lutherheim - Lembeck - Greven - Dortmund-Ems Canal - Masendorf, the Rev Gwinnett was always to be found in the forefront of the battle. His courage and inspiring example throughout this and other campaigns has long been a byword in the Bde".  

Postwar

After the war, Gwinnett became the Rector of Redgrave with Botesdale, Suffolk from 1945 until 1952. He subsequently rejoined the Army, travelling to Singapore, Germany and Gibraltar, before leaving the RAChD in 1969. After his departure, he became the Vicar of Little Houghton and Brafield-on-the-Green. He had one son, named Adrian. 

One of Gwinnett's parishioners pointed out that despite his heroics "Many have reflected aloud during the last few days since his death 'How approachable he was, with always a kind and friendly word for everyone'. All were equal in his eyes and none more equal than himself. In fact an underlying shyness made him too self-effacing at times and presiding over meetings never came easily to him". 

Another tribute was offered by one of Gwinnett's contemporaries from the 9th Battalion:

"At the height of battle, he was always at the forefront as a shining example, offering succour to the living, comfort to the dying. No matter where he conducted a service, be it in a  church or during a lull in battle, there was that same spiritual presence...One vivid memory lingers: Padre crawling along muddy ditches to administer Holy Communion to individual small groups on Sunday mornings. His personal courage on the battlefield is well known: carrying only a walking stick, he saw everyone on his daily rounds, no matter what dangers he had to encounter...The spiritual side of life means much to a soldier. In battle it is an anchor and few who have faced up to real danger will dispute this. Example means much in this life and the example set by John Gwinnett had a very deep effect. I believe he helped many overcome fear by faith". 

John Gwinnett died on the 8 of February 1977.