Page 243 - The Bugle 2018

SHROPSHIRE REGIMENTAL MUSEUM
Things are moving surprisingly fast in Shropshire! The Trustees of the Shropshire Regimental Museum are busy planning a re-branding of the museum next year, including re-naming it the Soldiers of Shrop- shire Museum. This will enable the museum to extend its exhibits to include a history of the Castle and famous Shropshire soldiers, whilst retaining its traditional regimental stories and artefacts. An appeal is also due to be launched in order to secure the future of the museum in the face of the recently withdrawn MOD grant.
Our winter lecture series continues to be a popular draw and in the past year has included excellent talks on Passchendaele, Belsen, the German Spring Offensive of 1918, and a history of the Rifles and its antecedents. Special exhibitions have featured the militaria of Major General Jack Wentworth Reeve (Rifle Brigade), grandfather of the recent High Sheriff, Charles Lillis, and an expanded stand on the Battle of Bligny as part of the centenary commemorations of the extraordinary feat of arms by 4 KSLI on 6th June 1918 which has also inspired a series of articles in the local press and the Shropshire Magazine.
Our curator for the past 4 years, Christine Bernath, is moving on promotion to a new post as Assistant Director of the Gurkha Museum in Winchester, and we wish her every possible success in her new role.
For further information on forthcoming events, news about the Museum, or to join our Friends Association, please visit our website at www.shrop- shireregimentalmuseum.co.uk, where you will also find our online shop and research service.
David Dalton MM, who was born in 1926, died suddenly on 11 January 2016, aged 89. During the closing stages of the war he was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry under fire near Lauenburg, Germany. At the time, he was a 19 year-old Private soldier with the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry. His platoon found itself pinned down by heavy machine gun fire. David Dalton, on his own initiative, used a smoke grenade to cover his solitary advance to the machine gun position. He threw two hand grenades and shot several of the enemy with a captured pistol before the remaining ten soldiers surrendered to him. He was awarded an immediate Military Medal for gallantry in the field. The citation for this action is held in the archives and reproduced in ‘The Honours and Awards of the Intelligence Corps’. In 1946, he signed on for another three years, this time in the Intelligence Corps and was posted to 415 Field Security Section. At the time David joined the section it was probably in the area of Nienburg and involved in tracking down wanted Nazis. He was also sent to the Hook of Holland on security duties. During its time at the Hook, the section was responsible for the security of the port as a major embarkation point not only for troops travelling between Harwich and the Hook, but also for the rail links between BAOR, British Troops Austria (BTA) and Trieste. The section also provided security cover for the British units in Holland. David Dalton would have been involved in all of this. After he left the Corps he was a salesman who eventually rose to be the proprietor of his own business, Dalton Business Machines. He was one of the first people to introduce answer phones to the general public. David was also a member of the Merseyside Military Medal Association and a keen member of Eastern Counties ICA until advancing age slowly took its toll. His funeral and interment was held at The Priory Church, Deeping St James on 19 January. The Corps was represented by the Regional Secretary, Mike Cooksey and Fred Judge, family friend and former Regional Secretary. We offer our sincere condolences to David’s wife, Avis, and their two children son John and daughter Susan.
Obituaries
Lieutenant Colonel Denis Graham Allen died, aged 77, in Shropshire on 2 March 2018. He was a prominent figure in the County, and his death was promptly reported on BBC Radio Shropshire.
Denis Allen joined 5th Battalion The Light Infantry in 1978, following a number of years service with the Royal Air Force Regiment, a period which had included an operational tour of duty in Aden. Shortly after starting as a Platoon Commander in ‘B’ Company 5LI(V) he assumed command of the Assault Pioneer Platoon in Whitchurch. By 1979 he was commanding ‘E’ Company in Wellington, an appointment which he held for the next five years. From 1984 until 1986 he was Second-in-Command of 7LI(V) in Durham, after which he moved back to Shropshire as Commanding Officer of the Western District Training Team in Donnington.
1990 saw him in a new role within the School of Infantry Training Devel- opment Team in Warminster. His final Territorial Army appointment was on the staff of Headquarters 143 (West Midlands) Brigade in Shrewsbury from 1992 until 1995. Denis held a variety of jobs in civilian life, specialising in management training. Throughout this time he was a keen rugby player. He was one-time President of the Wellington Branch of the Royal British Legion. At the time of his death he was Mayor of Wellington.
We offer our sincere condolences to Denis Allen’s widow, Liz, and to their three children, Patrick (commissioned in the Royal Logistic Corps), Julian and Josephine.
FIELD OF REMEMBRANCE 2017
The KSLI and LI was again well represented for the opening of this year’s Field of Remem- brance (outside Westminster Abbey) by HRH Prince Henry of Wales on 9 November 2017. Major Christopher Ballenden represented the KSLI and Colonel Rex Stephenson repre- sented the LI for the Prince of Wales’s review of the Regimental Plots.
DAVID DALTON, ON HIS OWN INITIATIVE, USED A SMOKE GRENADE TO COVER HIS SOLITARY ADVANCE TO THE MACHINE GUN POSITION
HRH Prince Harry with Major Christopher Ballenden (late KSLI) at The Field of Remembrance, Westminster Abbey 9 November 2017
THE RIFLES
REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATIONS 249