My father Thomas Walsh, was born in Brewery Lane, Ennis, Co Clare, on 18th April 1911. He was the youngest of four children, three boys: Christopher, John, himself and a girl, Myra. His mother and father were named John and Mary and his father was an attendant at the asylum in Ennis.
As a child, he remembers the uprising in 1916 and the Civil War that followed. To him it was an adventure. He was a scout in Ennis (very different to the Baden-Powell scouts) and he and his fellow scouts would run with messages in their mouths for the old IRA and when stopped by British troops, they would swallow the message.
On 28th October 1939, at Acton, London, my father enlisted in the Territorial Army joining the Royal Artillery of the British Army. He became Gunner Walsh, Serial No. 929839. The date of birth on his Soldiers and Service Pay Book was inaccurately entered as 18th January 1912. In fact, he was born on the 18th April 1911 in Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland. (He might have been trying to give the impression of being younger!) There was no mystery why he joined. He saw the freedom of Europe and democracy threatened by Hitler and German invasion so he joined up to fight in the British Army and against fascism. In fact, he would have fought for anyone against what he perceived as a common foe. He was posted to the 5th Field Training Regiment (5th Regiment Royal Artillery, RHA) on 15th November 1939 where he was trained and then sent to a General Base Depot in Dover. He was assigned to the British Expeditionary Force and posted to France on 27th April 1940, where he undertook despatch rider duties. This may have been as part of the Divisional Troops of the 44th Division of the British Army. I think he was evacuated from The Mole, Dunkirk via Armentieres and Oost Cappel to England on 31st May 1940.
Sometime after this date (it is not recorded in his paybook, maybe the 25th June 1940) he was posted to the 48th Division (South Midland) and to the 53rd Queens Own Worcestershire Yeomanry on the same day. The regiment known as the 53rd Anti-Tank Regiment subsequently became the 53rd Light Regiment and again the 53rd Airlanding Light Regiment also known as the 6th Airlanding Light Regiment. He was assigned to 210 Battery. Their main weapon was a 6-pounder anti-tank gun. At one stage, he was posted to coastal defences in Upsall. This may have occurred before he joined the previously mentioned regiment. He was passed fit for airborne duties and trained for glider drops.
On 14th June 1944, (D Day +8), he landed in Normandy, France as part of the Allied Liberation Force and the 6th Airborne Division's Divisional Troops, the 53rd Air Landing Brigade or the 6th Air Landing Brigade. (His paybook says the 9th June which is the embarkation date.) His 210 Battery were supposed to be dropped by glider on the first day but there were not enough gliders and the weather was bad, so he left Newhaven on the Empire Capulet, for France on 9th June, arriving outside Luc-sur-mer on the 13th, going ashore on the 14th at Sword beach and spending the night of the 14th at Colleville-sur-Orne (now Colleville-Montgomery), moving to the east bank of the Orne River at Benouville. On the 15th he moved to northwest of Longueville, northwest of the River Orne. The regiment became a support unit to the 3rd and 5th Parachute Brigades of the 6th Airborne Division. He may have participated in Operation Goodwood - the second attempt by the British to breakout of the Normandy bridgehead and take Caen.
By 18th August he was near Cabourg in divisional support of the infantry troops of the 6th Airlanding Brigade, (1st Battalion of The Royal Ulster Rifles; 12th Battalion The Devonshire Regiment; 2nd Battalion The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Regiment) and on the 21st he moved north of Dozule, on the 22nd Branville, on the 24th west of the River Touques, and on the 26th on the River Risle, Seine, Foulbec. This was part of Operation Paddle under Major-General Gale, the push towards the Seine River. On the 27th August, the Regiment retired to Equemonville between Honfleur and Pont Andemer, and on the 3rd September 1944, they embarked for England and Southampton from Arromanches.
On 21st April 1945 he returned to Europe as part of the British Liberation Army. From here on it is difficult to follow what happened. His Regiment was posted to France on 22nd December 1944. He may well have been wounded and unfit at the time. What happened is unclear. His paybook indicates - as does Ministry of Defence Records - that he went to Norway, possibly on 2nd June 1945. He could have been posted to 21st Army Group and 1st Airborne Divisions divisional troops as part of the 1st Airlanding Light Regiment. Following Arnhem, the remnants of the 1st Airborne were sent to Norway to round up German troops at this time. I know he took part in the liberation of Norway from German occupation as he received a letter from the King of Norway thanking him for his service. He was evacuated to England on 27th August 1945. He must have been wounded or injured in some way as he wasn't discharged from the British Army until the 11th July 1947.
He was decorated for his services and received the 1939/45 Star, the France and Germany Star, the Defence Medal and the War Medal 1939/45. In 2011, I acquired the unofficial medals that he was entitled to: The Dunkirk Medal initiated by the Mayor of Dunkirk in 1965 and the Normandy Medal commissioned by the Normandy Veterans Association in 1987. These now hang below his official Campaign Medals, as is standard practice, in our hallway.
He died in 1998 in Blackwater, Co. Clare, Ireland.
