Messages posted by: halld169

Bill,

Thank-you so much for your reply. I am, quite honestly, amazed to have got anything back, but, I guess if you are a Royal yourself, I shouldn't have been surprised. I'm not of the Corps, but I did serve under Lt Gen Ed Davis for a couple of years when he was a brig in London before he eventually went on to be CGRM.

My uncle, Thomas - aka "Tom" or " 'ar Tommy" - was an Army Commando with a Royal Ulster Rifles cap badge - 2 versions of which are in the family archive with his other effects. He had a chequered life after leaving the Army, but, as a kid, I absolutely loved him and even worked for him briefly selling baked potatoes before I commissioned in 1988. Sadly, nobody seems to know what happened to him. Since he was born in 1926 and had a fairly rough life, he is almost certainly now dead. Still, you never know with 'ar Tommy!

In the picture that started all this off Tom is number 8 from picture left on the third row back - I've circled him in the first attachment.

The second attachment shows Tom in his BD with the AAC dagger badge clearly visible and the 3rd attachment looks like some kind of camp in the Middle East / Levant / Cyprus - no date I'm afraid, but Tom is on the front row 4th from picture right.

We have now added the things on your Achnacarry list to our itinerary for August and I may even write to the Lochiel to see if my time defending Scotland can get me any further than the standard tour; you never know - no ask/no get?

The West Highland Museum was already on our list! Very, very much looking forward to it and can't thank you enough for replying.

Yours aye,

Dave H

Sorry to be some years late to this thread.

I am taking my 9-year old son up to Scotland next month for a road trip which includes a visit to the Commando memorial - he's nuts about the Royals and already wants to have a crack at the green lid. So, we dug out the old photos I have of my uncle who was a Commando to see if we might also visit the place he trained - there were many stories in the family of him running up and down Ben Nevis each day, so I knew it was Scotland.

One of those photos was the large one that started this thread and I know for a fact he's on it. When we Googled "Haydon Commando Scotland" we found your posts.

Absolutely amazing to find some more info after over 77 years!

Did you ever find anything else out about the photo or do you have any further information on what life was like at Haydon?

I have some more photographs of my uncle in what looks like Cyprus or the Middle East and know that he was definitely on the Levant because I also have an olive leaf he sent my Grandmother from Jerusalem. I'd be more than happy to share these in case anyone knows anything about the other people that are in them. I also have my uncle's pay book and a couple of other odds and ends.

Regards,

Dave H