23 October 2012

A little more on Jock McDiarmid


My search continues for information about SAS warrior Jock McDiarmid, School Sergeant at The Armidale School for part of my time there, and I am grateful to old classmate John Swain who recently sent me a link to a piece on the National Library’s Trove website containing a scan of a Hobart Mercury item for 14 March 1952, reporting on the presentation of his Croix de Guerre by the French Consul-General in Sydney.

The item has a photo of Jock in uniform and reads:

Sgt James McDiarmid, who on Wednesday in Sydney received the Croix de Guerre from French Consul-General Strauss.  Sgt. McDiarmid, a member of the 13th National Service Battalion, Ingleburn NSW, won the decoration on August 14, 1944, as a member of the Special Air Service of the British Airborne Division.  With another paratrooper he cleaned up a troublesome German machine-gun post behind enemy lines in France.

Access the Trove item here.

Earlier in the year John sent me a link to a Polish webpage describing the birth of the SAS; there is a photo of Jock on operations in the Netherlands at the foot of the page (right hand photo, Jock standing alongside a jeep). Access this webpage here.

No comments: