In
Memory
Of
THOMAS DAWSON M.C.
Born 24th Oct 1919
Died 24th Nov 1973
Beloved Husband
of
Flora Dunwoodie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thomas Dawson MC.  1919 - 1973 

By His brother Billy
 

Tom, the eldest of our family was only nineteen when war started. At this time he was working in the Royal Bank in Drymen and was called up to serve almost immediately. He went into the Army and at first served in the Seaforth as a private, doing his training at Fort George, which was the Seaforth’s headquarters at that time. He was posted to the and Orkneys and Shetlands during his first two years of the war during which time he rose progressively through the ranks, Corporal, Sergeant etc. he was then commissioned and did his officer training at Malvern.

Not quite sure about the following, only what I have read and some guesswork. The 8^th battalion of the Argyll’s were in France at the beginning of the war and suffered heavy causalities before coming home from Dunkirk.

When Tom finished his Officer training he was given a choice of which regiment he joined, and of course as the Argylls were his local regiment he opted for them, joining the 8^th Battalion as a 2nd Lieutenant. The 8^th Argylls were sent to North Africa as part of the British contingent of the 1^st Army, which landed in Algeria in October 1942. At the same time the 8^th Army under Montgomery were beginning to push the Germans back in Egypt.

The Americans in the 1^st Army were deployed to the south, the British to nearer the coast, and they both started the attempt to push the enemy back towards the east.

It looks as if the Argylls were into the fighting as soon as they landed, and had only been there a few weeks when they got mixed-up in the fight on the hill in which Tom was involved. By all accounts it would seem that the Argylls had to fight their way up this hill with the enemy already positioned at the top. (Not sure if they were Germans or Italians).

The Germans had sent out one of their Panzer divisions to try and fight the 1^st Army backwards. Reading between the lines I think the Argylls also suffered a lot of casualties in this battle, as you can see by the following report some of the Company Commanders were wounded.

After advancing and pushing the enemy out of North Africa the Argylls landed with the invading force in Southern Italy and fought their way with the rest of the Army all the way up through Italy. During this time in North Africa and Italy, Tom (still in the Argylls) was attached to the Ghurkhas and maybe the Indian Army.

The family at home never saw Tom much between 1942 and the end of the war. After the end of the war Tom married his wife Florrie but still continued to serve in the army, going out to India on detachment with the Ghurkhas.

Tom never spoke very much about these days or the reasons behind him being awarded the Military Cross for his outstanding qualities and courage, the family can only presume he personally thought he was ‘only doing his duty’.