Durham Light Infantry - Notable Old Comrades

Notable Old Comrades

• Lieutenant Leslie Samuel Phillips, CBE, Actor
• King Vajiravudh, of Siam (Thailand) while holding the rank of Crown Prince
• George Sainton Kaye Butterworth, MC (12 July 1885 – 5 August 1916) was an English composer best known for his settings of A. E. Housman's poems.
• Private Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent (29 April 1895 – 3 October 1967) conductor, organist and composer
• Gilbert Maurice Norman was born 1914 He joined the army, receiving a commission in the Durham Light Infantry in 1940 and was subsequently recruited into the Special Operations Executive (SOE).In November 1942 he was sent into France to join the newly formed Prosper network, but on 23 June 1943 was arrested by the Gestapo, together with cell leader Francis Suttill and courier Andrée Borrel. Norman was taken to the Paris headquarters of the Sicherheitsdienst at 84 Avenue Foch and tortured for several days.The Germans used Norman's captured wireless set, to transmit their own false messages to SOE Headquarters in Baker Street. Norman attempted to warn London that he was in captivity by not giving the Germans the second part of his security check, which they did not know about, but was frustrated when London sent a curt reply telling him to correct the omission.The Germans were thus able to set a trap which resulted in the capture of Jack Agazarian who had been sent with Nicholas Bodington to investigate the fate of the Prosper network. After brutal interrogation and torture, Norman was shipped to Mauthausen concentration camp where he was executed on 6 September 1944.
• Sir Richard George May (12 November 1938 – 1 July 2004) was a British *judge. National service with the Durham Light Infantry.
• Sergeant Major Bill Nicholson OBE (26 January 1919 – 23 October 2004) was an English football player, coach, manager and scout who devoted his life to Tottenham Hotspur in North London.
• General Sir Peter Edgar de la Couer de la Billière KCB, KBE, DSO, MC & Bar (b. 29 April 1934) is a former British soldier, who was Director of the United Kingdom Special Forces during the Iranian Embassy Siege and Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in the 1990 Gulf War.
• Major Sir John Frederick Ferguson CBE CStJ DL (c.1891 – 27 May 1975), Chief Constable, Metropolitan Police.
• Lieutenant Harold Orton (23 October 1898 – 7 March 1975) was an English university lecturer and dialectologist, best remembered as co-founder of the Survey of English Dialects.
• General Sir Nigel Poett (J.H.N. Poett) was a British Army officer best known for commanding the 5th Parachute Brigade, British 6th Airborne Division during the Battle of Normandy.
• Lieutenant Colonel William Morgan Fletcher-Vane, 1st Baron Inglewood (12 April 1909 – 22 June 1989), was a British Conservative Party politician.
• (John) William Ainsley (30 June 1898 – 23 June 1976) was a British coal miner and politician.
• Air Vice-Marshal Adam Henry Robson, PhD, (3 August 1892 – 9 October 1980) was a senior officer of the Royal Air Force. After being educated at Armstrong College, Newcastle he joined the Durham Light Infantry on the outbreak of the First World War and served until 1919, being thrice wounded and twice winning the Military Cross.
• Claud Lovat Fraser (15 May 1890 London – 18 June 1921, Dymchurch) was an English Artist, designer and author. In the autumn of 1914, Fraser enlisted with the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps and was quickly commissioned to the 14th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry. He went on to produce sketches as a record of the trenches and battlefields of Flanders. He was one of few British officers to survive the Battle of Loos in 1915. In December of that year his battalion withstood a German gas attack but in the confusion of the event, he neglected to put on his gas mask and suffered injuries to his lungs. He was promoted to captain in early 1916, but by late February he was invalided home, suffering from the effects of gas and from shellshock after a battle at the Ypres Salient. He served as a clerk in the War Office on visual propaganda from October 1916 through to late April 1917 and then at the Army Record Office at Hounslow until his discharge in March
• Sir Godfrey Russell Vick KC (24 December 1892 – 27 September 1958) was an English lawyer and judge who played a part in several important tribunals.
• Peter Lewis MC, later a journalist and editor.