Messages posted by: David Edmiston

Team, While searching through old photos belonging to my father, Gordon EDMISTON (8 Troop, 11 Scottish Commando), I found the following which you may wish to add to the archive. All the named persons already appear in the lists on the archive and all were members of 11 Commando:
1) John Clover ANDERSON - 1940 photo, rather better than the one currently used on his profile page: https://www.commandoveterans.org/JohnAnderson_11Commando
2) Robert MURRAY, Laurie LOW, Charles LOCK & Gordon EDMISTON at an 11 Commando reunion on the Isle of Arran in August 1986.
3) Attendees at a meal provided by Lieutenant Iain ROBINSON (8 Troop), during the same reunion on Isle of Arran in August 1986. Several faces are clear and potentially recognisable - but the names are unknown, except for my father (GE).
Hope this is of interest to someone :-)

Hi Pete,
Firstly on behalf of the whole family, can I express our thanks for your comprehensive update of your records in relation to my father.
I'm struggling to find additional information relating to his final rank. I believe it was a permanent one he held before being demobbed in 1946, mainly based upon the comment on the last page of his memoirs where he wrote: "For a period we were stationed in Schleswig Holstein, near Flensburg. I was now a captain and second in command of a Squadron and I was responsible for the administration of a POW camp where the prisoners were Poles who had been forced to fight for Germany in the latter days of the war. The inmates were male and female - indeed two of them were married and I was invited to the wedding."
I have applied for a copy of his full service record (as immediate NOK), so that should provide an answer, eventually. In addition I have made enquiries with the regimental museum in Edinburgh and have a provisional appointment to meet the curator there to look through their records in April. Again, this may provide more info. I will update you if I find out any more.
Although not connected to his commando service, I have attached a copy of the citation (from the National Archive) of the award of his MC. I find it all the more interesting as it was signed by Monty!
Once again, THANK YOU.
D.E.

Proof reading my post might have helped me notice that his d.o.b. is clearly 04/01/1920, not 04/01/2020 as I typed within the post. My apologies.

Gordon Edmiston signed up in 1940. He volunteered for 11 Commando in August 1940. He went on to serve with the LRDG and in 1943 was commissioned in Cairo, then joining the Royal Scots Greys where he achieved the rank of Captain and was awarded an MC in February 1945 and an OBE in 1976.

He is named incorrectly in the Nominal Roll for 11 Commando (http://www.commandoveterans.org/book/export/html/976) showing his first name as George not Gordon, and there is some information missing from his entry (date of birth 04/01/2020, date of death 22/03/2000). In 1992 he wrote a lengthy document (almost 20,000 words) detailing his army service. It contains a reasonable amount of information about his training and service in 11 Commando and may be of interest? It would be good to add it to your archive.

I have attached a PDF copy of his "memoir" to this post and also a photograph of him taken in Cairo in 1943 at OCTU, wearing a ME Commando badge on his beret. It would be great if both of these attachments could be added to your archive, as his family is very proud of his service. And would it be possible to correct the entry where he has been mis-named?

(He was known throughout his later service in the tank regiment as "Commando Joe"!)