Page 197 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
and fitting memorial now reside with 1st Military Working Dog Regiment (Royal Army Veterinary Corps).
The event was poignant, a time to reflect on the passing years since the Unit’s formation in 1973. There, as the memorial was unveiled in silence, minds turned to the men and dogs whose lives had been lost, to that point, in the heat of the Troubles, and those who had sustained life-changing injuries in the line of duty. A month after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, Op BANNER was still ongoing with the ADU NI personnel, alongside the wider Army presence in the Province, caught between the certainty of the violence of the past and the promise of calm for the future. A slightly sinister atmosphere of uncertainty lingered as the fate of those named on the memorial were recalled.
The ADU NI suffered five fatalities during the Troubles:
The Fallen:
Corporal Bryan Criddle BEM of the RAVC originally from Blockley in Gloucestershire, joined the Royal Pioneer Corps at the age of 17 and later transferred to the RAVC to become a dog trainer. He deployed on an accompanied tour of duty with the ADU NI as a Search dog handler. Corporal Criddle, and his AES dog, Jason, were based in Omagh with the 16th/5th Queen’s Royal Lancers when on Wednesday 18th July 1973, they were on a routine search task near the village of Clougher in Co Tyrone. Searching enthusiastically up a grassy hill, well ahead of the troops, Jason suddenly indicated. Cpl Criddle turned immediately to shout a warning to the men to stay down the hill because what Jason had located was, it transpired, five buried IEDs in a ‘horseshoe’ configuration. The IED was a command wire-initiated device laid by Republican Terrorists just across the border with Eire and Bryan was positioned in the centre of the IEDs when they exploded. Jason was blown clear of the blast, somehow escaping significant injury but his handler was not so fortunate. Airlifted to Musgrave Park Military Hospital in Belfast, Bryan’s condition was critical. And, after four days in intensive care, on Sunday 22nd July 1973, Cpl Bryan Criddle sadly succumbed to his injuries – his mother and his wife Julia at his bedside. Bryan left behind his wife Julia, a daughter Sarah aged three and twin boys Gary and Glen aged 10 months.
Captain Gerry Quigley OC ADU NI RAVC led the funeral in Blockley where family and Army
39 Chiron Calling Issue No 2 dated 29th September 1973.
40 Royal Irish – The Irish Soldier in Service to the Crown – website.
colleagues gathered to remember Cpl Bryan Criddle. Jason, still bearing the scars from the incident, attended in the care of Sgt Rod ’Sticks’ Knight RAVC. Cpl Criddle was awarded the British Empire Medal on 6th July 1973 for his sterling work in Northern Ireland, only weeks before his untimely passing.39
Sapper Michael Orton of the Royal Engineers was killed on 17th September 1973 as a result of the accidental discharge of a 9mm Browning pistol. The accident, which took place within the veterinary hospital at Long Kesh, had a profound effect on the ADU soldiers.
Corporal Brian Brown QGM, 3rd Battalion of the Ulster Defence Regiment and his Labrador Search dog Oliver were called to a garage on receipt of several coded bomb warnings at Kilkeel on 28th May 1986. As they diligently searched the premises a booby trapped oil drum exploded killing both instantly. For his actions Brian was awarded the QGM posthumously, and the notification was published in the Supplement to the London Gazette dated 14th April 1987; the background to his award included the following: ‘The Queen’s Gallantry Medal is awarded for exemplary acts of bravery, and is in recognition not only of his actions in the incident in which he died, but also of the outstanding performance of his duties over a period of many years, during which he also received the General Officer Command- ing’s Commendation’. He died together with his specially trained ‘sniffer dog’ Oliver, while searching a garage for a suspected bomb on 28th May 1986. Corporal Brown was fully aware of the risks involved in carrying out his mission but was equally aware of the risk to the community posed by the terrorist bombing campaign’.40
Corporal Derek Hayes from Lincolnshire and of the Royal Pioneer Corps and his dog Ben were killed in action on the 21st May 1988, approxi- mately 200 metres from the Eire border, on the Castleblayney Road at Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, as the dog team searched alongside a dry-stone wall an IED was initiated taking both the lives of Derek and Ben. Derek was buried with the ashes of Ben.
Corporal Terry O’Neil of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers was killed on 25th May 1991 whilst he and LCpl Darren Swift (Royal Green Jackets) fed their dogs at North Howard Street Mill in Belfast. The cowardly terrorists had noted the routine of dogs being fed in the afternoon, the IRA perpe- trators, from a 3rd storey fire escape stairway
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