By Tabby Angier, Glenurquhart
A few weeks ago, I was on a flight to Seoul with some of my family. Also on the flight were Nicola Nash, from the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre at Imjin Barracks in Gloucester, and her manager, Tracey Bowers. They are part of a research team known as the ‘MOD War Detectives’, and their dedicated and exhaustive work has been incredibly successful. In 2023, Ms Nash’s research revealed the names of four men buried in graves at the UN Memorial Cemetery in Busan previously marked as belonging to unknown soldiers of the British Army. One of the four men was my father, and after more than seventy years, the news that his grave had been found was unbelievable.
In the 4 graves lie:
- Major Patrick Angier, 1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, killed in action at the Battle of the Imjin River, 23 April 1951 (my father);
- Sergeant Donald Northey, of the same regiment, killed in action 24 April 1951;
- Corporal William Adair, 1st Battalion, Royal Ulster Rifles, killed in action 3 January 1951;
- Rifleman Mark Foster, of the same regiment, also killed in action 3 January 1951.
Also on the flight to Seoul were relatives connected to two of the other graves, including Michael Northey, whose father is buried close to mine, as well as a military contingent.
The rededication service on 12 November 2024 was conducted by the Reverend Alan Cobain CF, who got everything just right. Of course, the presence of Pipe Major William ‘Billy’ Mitchell, of the Royal Irish Regiment, meant a great deal to me, as a piping enthusiast. In younger years, I played the pipes at a number of commemorative events, including in Normandy, and at the dedication of a window in Gloucester Cathedral in tribute to the casualties sustained by the Gloucestershire Regiment at the Battle of the Imjin River.
Billy played Oft in the Stilly Night to perfection, and his dress, deportment and bearing added to the solemnity of the occasion. A very special and unusual detail was his new pipe banner with the insignia of 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team, of which the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment is a part. The banner depicts Bellerophon astride Pegasus, a recognisable symbol of British airborne forces since the Second World War.
Completing the musicians’ contingent were the two buglers, Lance Corporal Benjamin Buckles, (3rd Battalion, The Rifles), and Lance Corporal Barry Norton (1st Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment). Also present were Captain Archie Ford (5th Battalion, The Rifles), Captain Peter Keogh MC and Colour Sergeant Andrew Mather (1st Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment), as well as many other representatives from the United Nations Command in Korea, the British Ambassador, the Defence Attaché and his staff. They all gave the event a professional and dignified atmosphere.
My father, having been severely wounded during the Second World War while in action in Italy with the 4th Battalion, Parachute Regiment, did not really have to go to Korea. He was thinking of coming out of the army and becoming a farmer, but he felt it was his duty to go. Many of the young soldiers had no battle experience, and some were doing their National Service, just boys, who did not know where Korea was.
According to the late Cyril Papworth MM, who carried my father’s body down from ‘Castle Hill’, which we also visited on our trip, ‘Major Angier always had his company’s welfare and morale in the forefront of his thinking. We all loved him deeply.’
