Roger Muirhead, veteran of El Alamein, the invasion of Sicily and the Normandy landings

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18-04-2025

Roger Muirhead, who has died a few days short of his 104th birthday, was awarded campaign medals for his Army service in North Africa, Italy, Normandy and Burma.
Roger Hedderwick Muirhead was born in Scotland on April 17 1921. His father, Brigadier Sir John Spencer Muirhead, DSO, MC, served in both world wars, and taught Roman law at Glasgow University. His great-grandfather, James Hedderwick, founded and published The Citizen, Glasgow's evening newspaper.
He was educated at Fettes and enlisted in the Army in 1939 at the outbreak of the Second World War. Commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC), he joined his unit, part of 151st Brigade, British 50th (Northumbrian) Division at El Alamein, Egypt, in September 1942.
He commanded a platoon in the Second Battle of El Alamein, the turning point of the North Africa campaign, and in the Battle of the Mareth Line. In July 1943, he commanded an ammunition platoon in Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. He and his men embarked from Port Said on a passenger liner before transferring to a landing craft.
He landed south of Capo Murro di Porco. There was little opposition but he was involved in a skirmish in the dark with American paratroopers who had landed in the wrong place. He said afterwards that he narrowly escaped being shot. A merchant ship which he saw being bombed was carrying all the alcohol for the Officers' Mess. He was the Messing Officer and had spent all the funds for its purchase in Alexandria.
After the fighting, he took some of his men to the top of Mount Etna and they camped there for the night. The next morning, a German bomber came over them, flying very low, pursued by an RAF fighter. Muirhead and his platoon crossed to mainland Italy with their lorries and moved up to Bari on the Adriatic coast before returning to England in December to re-equip and train for the Normandy landings.
He landed at Arromanches on August 12 1944. Within a few days he was hospitalised with a recurrence of malaria and it was October before he was able to rejoin his unit, part of an anti-aircraft brigade, at Terneuzen in the Netherlands, on the southern shore of the western Scheldt Estuary.
He took part in the battle to open up the Scheldt between the strategically vital port of Antwerp and the North Sea to enable shipping to bring supplies to the Allies. He came across 20 Canadian Army three-ton lorries. They were under-employed and he commandeered them for several weeks before returning them to their base.
The 21st Army Group was badly in need of infantry officers to replace casualties. Muirhead was posted to the Isle of Man to re-train but in May 1945 he volunteered to serve with the RASC in the Far East. He was based at Comilla in Assam (now Bangladesh), a transit camp for the 14th Army in Burma, before moving to Rangoon. In August, the Japanese surrendered and for the next nine months he managed a British Military Government food supply depot at Teluk Anson in Perak State, Malaya.
In August 1946, he was demobilised in the rank of captain. He went up to Glasgow University to read law but he could not stand listening to lectures in Roman law by his father; after two terms, he emigrated to Canada. He returned to Britain in 1949 and went to the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College, Edinburgh, as a mature student.
For 20 years he served as a veterinary officer at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries (Maff). Following extensive research, he played a notable part in the identification of tuberculosis in badgers as a cause of bovine TB and in demonstrating how transmission of the bacteria could be eliminated by controlling the movements of these animals. In 1972, his findings were published in the State Veterinary Journal.
In 1975, he was part of a team that went to Malta to deal with an outbreak of foot and mouth disease and, in April 2001 Maff asked him to help with the British foot and mouth crisis. Aged 80, he worked on farms full-time for six months. On his retirement, he was appointed MBE for his services to agriculture.
Settled in a village in Gloucestershire, he enjoyed walking his dogs and adding to his considerable knowledge of old motor cars. In his later years, he was cared for by his business partner, Peter Robertson, and subsequently by Peter's son, Jay.
Roger Muirhead, born April 17 1921, died April 11 2025
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