40 Commando RM 1948 - Doctor Cox

I'm trying to find out whatever I can on Michael Ievers Cox, said to have been in the Royal Navy as a Doctor, volunteered for the Royal Marines and 40 Commando, and was injured in Malta in 1948.

His injury was said to be: "in 1948, he was hit by a bullet that passed through his
femur and into the knee of a colleague." Apparently he later returned and went with the 40 to Hong Kong as well.

The problem is, I can not find him in any medical records as a GP, I can not find him in the Royal Institute of Navigation although he was said to be a "Fellow", and I am beginning to wonder about his being in the 40 Commando Rm as well.

Thank you.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 21/07/2021 16:08:54

I am not sure what you have already but there are a few references. In the book The Light Blue Lanyard (50 years with 40 Commando Royal Marines) the author, Major J.C. Beadle MBE, MC, RM, writes the - Commando Medical Officer Lt. M.J. Cox, R.N.V.R., was shot in the thigh - Note the initial J.

Also there is an entry in the B.M.J. about him here but you need to join for the full article:
https://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g3800

and he is also mentioned as a GP here http://www.arts4health.org/critical.html

and here,with the correct middle initial, under the section -More Unit Casualties - http://britains-smallwars.com/campaigns/palestine/page.php?art_url=40-cdo-haifa

You could try contacting the RM Historical Society to see if they can help.

https://www.rmhistoricalsociety.org/

Well, you certainly have helped this old former Sgt, kind sir.

Thank you very much, and best of luck. Jim

Hi again Jim

According to the book above which I highly recommend, he was shot in Haifa during the deployment of 40 Commando from Malta to Palestine due to the troubles there. All the best Pete.

Originally I thought that it was odd that he went in after Medical School at St. Thomas, supposedly by working as a cook for the RN, and then joining the Naval Reserves shortly thereafter. Then it appears that he was in the 40 Commando as a Surgery Lt. in the Royal Marines. This all happened when he was 25, and in 1947 is when he was said to be a part of the 40. Six months later he is shot in the thigh. The same year 1948 we see him in the Hosp at St. Thomas in London (from Haifa), where he meets and marries a nurse there. Nearly immediately he is out of the service and taking up a residency of one person in the area of Caldbeck, Cumbria. Population 400 or so.
I can see how he may have been discharged or released due to a shot in his thigh, but it all seemed so fast in my opinion.

At 69 years old we next hear that he is very interested in boats and sailing, that he commanded a boat that took scientists to the Arctic, where his son was then base commander at Svalbard. Boating hobbies I understand, but the trip to Svalbard would not have been anything a pleasure boater would wish to try.

Then I see he is giving course in Star Navigation and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigators, but there is no record of him as a fellow on their website.
I paid for the article from the British Medical that you suggested, and it only tends to
confuse the issue further.

The only boat that he is connected with prior to the trip to Svalbard was a dingy that he rowed in College. He did not buy his Quay boat until after that trip up to the Pole.

I know the RN teaches navigation and boating skills and such, but since he went from RN to RM almost immediately, when did he have the time? Based on the injury and discharge he had at most a year total in service, including the cook duty.

So you can see why I suspected that he might represent a false identity created for an Intelligence agent. His wife is even harder to locate anything about, and in no place anywhere does it list his parentage or early years. Nor his wife.
His children - sure, we have that. But not really anything at all on him. No Thesis from Med School, no papers published, worked as a GP and not a Surgeon in Cumbria.
I've seen this before in some other people, who existed only in a few pages up to a certain date, and then they are only evident in an under-the-radar type of life.
I have documents that show him to have quite an extensive knowledge of communications, not published of course but what my research dug up privately, and as a former Navy Radioman (E-5, equiv to Sgt), and Cryptographer, I recognize he had those skills as well. Did he pick them up while being a cook or in the six months of 40 Commando before he was injured?
More questions than answers, really.