John Wyndam Hartigan
Pre war Army.
Educated at Cheltenham where he got his colours for Rugby football, and was an under-officer in the College O.T.C. He obtained the Headmaster’s nomination from Cheltenham to Sandhurst, where he again became an under-officer. At the age of 20 he received a commission in the Sherwood Foresters.
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son of Lieut.-Colonel Marcus Michael G.M.G, D.S.O (Major in the Royal Munster Fusiliers, and later commanded a unit of South African light horse in East Africa during the First World War) and Eileen Hartigan, of Battle, Sussex.
Regular soldier, serving in the 2nd Battalion pre-war. Promoted to Lieutenant on 29/08/1939, aged 24, and was then immediately promoted to Captain on the outbreak of war. The 2/5th War Diary does not state when he joined the battalion, he was certainly with them by April 1940, when he led the advance party of the battalion to France. Sent out as a labour battalion, but when the Germans broke through at Sedan they were rushed north, and ended up holding the Canal de Haute Deule at Oignies, near the extreme south-east of the British line. Commanded B Company, which was the most heavily engaged of the Forester's companies in the action of 27 May.
Reported MIA later KIA, last seen firing a Bren gun from the hip while leading a counter-attack – and was Mentioned in Dispatches, gazetted on 20 December 1940.
The remains of 18 British soldiers (all but 1 Sherwood Foresters B Company 2/5th Bn), are interred in the cemetery at Oignies. These soldiers died in action, fighting to hold back the advancing German army, which allowed more time for the evacuation of British troops from the Dunkirk Beaches. Between 25th and 27th May, 1940 British, French and Moroccan troops held out against the advancing German army at key canal crossings at Oignies. A crucial 72 hours afforded time for the Allies to fall back to Dunkirk. The French lost 35 and the British 18 on the field of battle. On 28th May 1940, after sustaining heavy losses German troops entered Oignies, As the SS advanced, they picked up civilian refugees and used them as a human shield to prevent the soldiers from shooting on the advancing enemy.
Photo of John Wyndam Hartigan