John Hollington Grayburn

John Hollington Grayburn

John Hollington Grayburn , (* 1918 on Manora Island , India ; † September 20, 1944 near Arnhem ) was a British lieutenant and recipient of the Victoria Cross , the highest honor in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth .

Life

Hollington was born in 1918 on Manora Island , India , to Lionel "Paddy" Grayburn. His father Lionel was in the army during the Boer War and then worked at Grindleys Bank in India, which he later had to leave due to illness. John Hollington's family returned to England and settled on Roughwood Farm in Chalfront St. Giles , west of London . He went to school in Dorset , where he boxed and played rugby . From 1927 on Hollington played in the holidays and from 1936, when he left school, continuously with the Chiltern rugby club, which he had to stop on April 17, 1939. John's uncle, Sir "Tubby" Vandeleur Grayburn, was interned when the Japanese conquered Hong Kong and later executed.

He joined the army shortly before the outbreak of World War II . In 1942 he met Marcelle Chambers, a secretary at headquarters with whom he had a son, John. In the same year he was transferred to a paratrooper unit that was part of the British 6th Airborne Division . The then 26-year-old Grayburn was awarded the Victoria Cross for successes in the attack on Arnhem ( Operation Market Garden ) in the period from 17 to 20 September 1944 . During this battle he suffered several wounds until he was killed by a tank on September 20 .

Grayburn's body was not found until 1948. His deeds in the battle for Arnhem were recorded in a report by Major Allison D. Tatham-Warter , who also proposed him for the Victoria Cross.

literature

• This England: The Register of the Victoria Cross , 1997
• John Laffin: British VCs of World War 2 , 1997
• David Harvey: Monuments To Courage , 1999

Web links

• VC at Arnhem ( English )
• thedorsetpage.com ( English )
• anrhemarchive.org ( English )