Mystery SAS Man?

Discussion in 'Postwar' started by Verrieres, Dec 13, 2008.

  1. Steve G

    Steve G Senior Member

    Drew; I'm sorry but, I've followed this entire thread with mixed feelings. Poor guy's hardly in a position to 'escape and evade' such probing. But, one has to pretty much accept that inscription as a public admission of his day job. Sooooo .....

    Go to the General Register Office next. Here:

    Registration Services - Certificate Ordering Service

    Feed them what they ask. I.e, that his death was registered, J-S, 1982. Exeter. Ref 5B. Page 0975.

    Pay them their £7.00 and they'll send ye a copy of the guys Death Certificate. That'll tell ye exactly what he died of. When and where. Who was there to witness the death. What his usual address was. What his occupation was.

    It'll also state where and when he was born. but, that'll be according to the 'Witness' and so can't be taken as gospel. It's quite possibly only what they perceive from memories of what ever Ron' told them.

    Indeed, pretty much all the 'personal' stuff featured on a Death Certificate is what that Witness says. Thus his occupation could state " Soldier " or " Army ".

    Of course, someone might have proudly blurted out; " He was in the S.A.S! ". But that, again, doesn't prove shit. It's just what He told Them.

    I don't know. I trust you, Drew. But I still ask myself; 'Why the dogged interest? Does it matter? ~ outside his family who, one assumes, paid for the stone. And 'The Regiment', who would know and remember anyway.

    Mixed feelings.
     
  2. arkrite

    arkrite Senior Member

    Give the Human Race a problem and some of its members cannot help but try to solve it by sheer doggedness and determination. It has got us out of the trees to where we are today. Although of a recent date this subject is still history and shows how quickly things can be forgotten or difficult to trace as recent Time Team have shown. I sometimes look at a headstone and begin to wonder, which leads to a need for knowledge. I think that is why we are all here for...that thirst for knowledge.
     
  3. Mr Jinks

    Mr Jinks Bit of a Cad

    Sirs,
    Just reading through these older items and came across this one .It does not seem to have been updated since 2008 if there is a duplicate update then I do apologise.
    I have noticed this soldiers details have now been added to

    Special Forces - Roll Of Honour - Gallery - Ronald Nicholson (grave)

    The good Corporals details are recorded as follows

    22 SAS (D Squadron) (Cpl) Northern Ireland 1975
    died 22.6.1982 age 37 (left service
    buried Egg Buckland,near Plymouth,Devon (St Edwards)

    Added on 27 Jan 2012 - 18:13 by John Robertson

    For those interested in Ronald ,might I suggest a simple Google of `Flagstaff Hill Incident 1975`

    Best

    Clifford
     
    dbf likes this.
  4. Mr Jinks

    Mr Jinks Bit of a Cad

    Carrying on from where my Grandfather left off.From Wiki
    The incidentAfter the murder of Seamus Ludlow, the man kidnapped and shot near Dundalk, the Irish security forces stepped-up their presence along the border. A checkpoint was set-up by members of the Gardaí and the Irish Army on Flagstaff Road in the townland of Cornamucklagh, some 700 yards inside the Republic.At 10:40 pm, the Gardaí stopped a Triumph 2000 car coming from the north with two men inside. The driver obeyed the signal to stop, but when questioned by the policemen about their destination, they avoided a straight answer. They were asked to step out of the vehicle, after one Garda noticed that the passanger had what seemed to be a gun hidden under a map. The unidentified men were unwilling to leave the car until Irish Army soldiers came out of the bushes and pointed rifles at them in support of the Gardaí. The two men, who wore plain clothes, were Fijian-born trooper Ilisoni Ligari and trooper John Lawson, both members of the SAS. After searching the car, the policemen found a sub machine-gun and a Browning pistol.The Gardaí immediately arrested them, with the help of the Army, and took them to nearby Omeath Garda station. Lawson initially claimed that they were off-duty soldiers who became stranded while test-driving the car, and Ligari refused to talk about "the mission we were on". It later transpired that Lawson and Ligari were in the area to collect or relieve Staff Sergeant Malcom Rees and Corporal Ronald Nicholson; two SAS members carrying-out surveillance from a hidden observation post on Flagstaff Hill, which is just inside Northern Ireland and overlooks Carlingford Lough. According to author Peter Taylor, Rees and Nicholson were actually deployed on the Republic's side of the border.
    When the soldiers manning the surveillance post failed to meet Ligari and Lawson, they radioed Bessbrook Mill. They initially suspected an IRA ambush. Four plain-clothes SAS soldiers–troopers Nial McClean, Vincent Thompson, Nigel Burchell and Carsten Rhodes–were sent to search for their missing comrades in two cars, picking-up the two men from the observation post in the process. The team was carrying another three sub machine-guns, a pump-action shotgun and 222 rounds of ammunition. The first vehicle–a Hillman Avenger carrying Thompson, McClean, Rees and Nicholson–came upon the Garda checkpoint at 2:05 am. Rees and Nicholson were still wearing British Army uniforms. The second car–a Vauxhall Victor with Burchell and Rhodes–was stopped shortly after. Sergeant Rees tried to explain the situation to the Gardaí: "Let us go back. If the roles were reversed we would let you go back. We are all doing the one bloody job", but he eventually ordered his men to lay down their weapons when Irish Army soldiers surrounded both cars and aimed rifles at them.The Gardaí unit, commanded by Sergeant Pat McLoughlin, called for instructions on how to deal with the men now in custody. The shotgun drew the attention of the Gardaí since the same type of weapon was used in three recent murders in the area. Omeath Garda station was ordered to keep the men in custody until a decision was taken at a political level. Before dawn, it was decided that the SAS team be transferred to Dundalk Garda station.

    Kyle
     
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  5. mapshooter

    mapshooter Senior Member

    Why does everyone assume he has to be a battle casualty? A very dodgy assumption. Men of his age die of natural causes, there was one (a marine officer, clearly commissioned from the ranks) who so died in Afg last week. QMs dieing while doing BFT were not unknown. Training accidents - rare but they do happen. Then there are traffic accidents - I used to tell the local PIRA bosses that we suffered more dead in traffic accidents than their pissant activities (I've no idea if it was true but never let the opportunity for a bit psyops pass).
     
  6. Blutto

    Blutto Banned

    If you had replaced "traffic accidents" with "vehicle incidents" you would have actually been telling them something close to the truth.
     
  7. mapshooter

    mapshooter Senior Member

    If you had replaced "traffic accidents" with "vehicle incidents" you would have actually been telling them something close to the truth.

    Academic for the target audience :)
     
  8. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    Academic for the target audience :)


    I am pleased that you placed a smiley behind your words, as otherwise it would have sounded sarcastic towards the forum members.

    I am sure that many on the forum understand the difference with the play on words, especially so those who served in the Police and Armed forces both sides of the North/South border and our members who also live in the area.

    Regards
    Tom
     
  9. mapshooter

    mapshooter Senior Member

    Ah a grasper of the stick at the wrong end, bit of an overraction there sunshine. The audience at the time was paddy - unless you're one of them and we have to keep it really simple so you can keep up.
     
  10. Fatboybooty

    Fatboybooty Junior Member

  11. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Well played.
    Slightly odd thread finally 'solved'.
     
  12. Mike L

    Mike L Very Senior Member

    Missed this first time around, interesting read.

    'Involved with Mirbat'? That is something I have read about - one of the more famous SAS engagements.

    The Regiment does seem to have rather strange rules for burials/commemorations. Goes with the job I guess.
     
  13. Bob Wilton

    Bob Wilton Junior Member

    Yes most are buried at Hereford St Martins Church as its the regimental church,and all the grave markers are situated at the rear of the church,and there are many.

     
  14. Bob Wilton

    Bob Wilton Junior Member

    Post removed
     
  15. Bob Wilton

    Bob Wilton Junior Member

    Vince Thompson mentioned in this article was a Scotsman and came to the regiment from the Parachute Regiment.I knew him from Hereford and he was in Aden at the same time as myself in 1967. He was at at Ballycastle House Khormaksar.. He died destitute in Hereford about seven years ago and his old mates made sure he had a good funeral and send off.He was seen often around Hereford and was a very well known and pleasant bloke and well liked.I asked Vince how he managed to get caught by the Garda and he said it was a map reading error.LOL



    Flagstaff hill incident - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia




    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagstaff_hill_incident






    Flagstaff road along Cornamucklagh, where the SAS team was stopped by the ... The Flagstaff hill incident was an international incident between the Republic of ...
     
  16. mapshooter

    mapshooter Senior Member

    It's possible he was navy or a marine given the location. SAS take men from all parts of the armed forces, RM get the choice of SAS or SBS if they pass the common selection course.
     
  17. Bob Wilton

    Bob Wilton Junior Member

    I have posted this to an ex SAS friend of mine in Hereford who has replied that the regiment does not know about Ron Nicholsons grave.So I have posted him the details.
     
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  18. JAN0148

    JAN0148 New Member

    This Man was a former SAS soldier. He left the SAS the year before his death. He was at the time of his death working for a private .
    security company. He attempted to rejoin the unit at the time of the Falklands war but was turned down.
    He was a Plymouth lad, brought up in Shakespeare Rd, and attended Honicknowle Junior and Secondary Modern.
    He served three years in the 3rd RTR before joining the SAS in the mid sixties. The main campaigns he took part in were, Borneo, Dhofar,South Arabia, and Northern Ireland. He was a good friend of Major Peter Ratcliffe DCM,and gets a mention in his Book, Eye Of The Storm twenty five years in action with the SAS, probably one of the best books about the regiment. Only serving members are buried at Creden Hill, at that time ST Martins Church. It was considered by his wife (estranged) and other members of his family that the Gravestone was appropriate.
    I hope this anwersa few questions.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 13, 2017
  19. JAN0148

    JAN0148 New Member

    This Man was a former SAS soldier. He left the SAS the year before his death. He was at the time of his death working for a private .
    security company. He attempted to rejoin the unit at the time of the Falklands war but was turned down.
    He was a Plymouth lad, brought up in Shakespeare Rd, and attended Honicknowle Junior and Secondary Modern.
    He served three years in the 3rd RTR before joining the SAS in the mid sixties. The main campaigns he took part in were, Borneo, Dhofar,South Arabia, and Northern Ireland. He was a good friend of Major Peter Ratcliffe DCM,and gets a mention in his Book, Eye Of The Storm twenty five years in action with the SAS, probably one of the best books about the regiment. Only serving members are buried at Creden Hill, at that time ST Martins Church. It was considered by his wife (estranged) and other members of his family that the Gravestone was appropriate.
    I hope this anwersa few questions.
     
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  20. The_Truth

    The_Truth New Member

    Vince Thompson was not a Scotsman, has not died "destitute" and is very much alive thank you, I should know, I'm his son and I saw him yesterday.
     
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