Page 137 - Wish Stream Year of 2019

Our readers will be saddened by news of the death of Sydney Jary.
Commissioned into the Hampshire Regi- ment, Sydney took command of 18 Platoon 4th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry in July 1944. During the previous three weeks, two platoon commanders and three quarters of the soldiers had been killed or wounded. Rebuilding the pla- toon as a twenty-year-old cannot have been easy, but he commanded it until the end of the war in Europe in May 1945. Always in the thick of the fighting and leading by example, he was awarded an immediate Military Cross.
In 1984 the survivors of the platoon persuaded Sydney to write about his experiences and his book, 18 Platoon, was first published three years later. The project also led to a series of reun- ions of the platoon, held at Sandhurst around Remembrance Sunday. Sadly, the numbers inevitably dwindled until only Sydney remained.
Sydney Jary MC
However, The Light Infantry and now Rifles staff at Sandhurst have continued the tradition and a wreath is still laid at the monument to the other ranks close to the Royal Memorial Chapel.
18 Platoon was an instant success and is now in its 6th edition. It sparked a second career for Sydney, presenting on the realities of war and thousands of people have heard his down-to- earth experiences ranging from taking over a battle-weary platoon to the horrors of the dis- covery of the concentration camp at Belsen. The book is a slim volume of some 135 pages, yet there is little doubt that this remains the best memoires written by any platoon commander. Indeed, it is still required reading for Sandhurst Officer Cadets 30 years after it was written and 75 years after the events took place.
Sydney Jary MC will be sadly missed – but his legacy lives on with successive generations of Sandhurst alumni.
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