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Michael Strickland 1934.
Eugene Vincent Michael Strickland was born in Rawalpindi, India, on 25th August 1913. In May 1917, his father died of wounds received on the Western Front, leaving his mother in very reduced circumstances, living off a widow’s pension. In 1922, she brought her family back to the UK and, with Irish roots, hoped to settle in Ireland. However, the partition of the country brought great upheaval. Strickland, known either as Michael or ‘Strick’, attended Mayfield College, a Roman Catholic boarding school in Sussex, supported by a mother holding down several menial jobs. However, after attending a London crammer to prepare him for the entrance exam, he was awarded a King’s Cadetship at Sandhurst, which covered all essential fees. Commissioned into the Indian Army in 1934, he followed the usual path of spending his first year in India attached to a British regiment, in this case, the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry.
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