Major Tony Eeles, who has died aged 90, was a gunner officer in the Second World War, when he was awarded a Military Cross; he later fought in Korea.
Eeles finally received his decoration for gallantry in 1944; by then, however, he had already been twice recommended for an immediate Military Cross. In the end it was decided to award him the medal on the basis of his consistent bravery during several years of the conflict.
Major Tony Eeles
His first taste of battle came in January 1943, when, as a troop commander with 172 Field Regiment RA, Eeles joined the First Army in North Africa in time to take part in the final push on Tunis. The following month, he underwent his baptism of fire at Hunt’s Gap, near Beja.
In September 1943 he landed with the first waves of assaulting troops at Salerno, Italy, again in support of the Hampshire Brigade, and called in naval gunfire in the first critical days of the invasion.
In fierce fighting, he had a number of narrow escapes. He was receiving orders from his battery commander on the side of a road when the officer was shot dead by a sniper.
On another occasion, a mortar round landed beside Eeles in his trench but failed to explode.
Hardly less hazardous was the action in which he remained in a Forward OP while the position was being infiltrated by German soldiers. In a critical situation, he called down artillery fire on the enemy – and on himself. Again he survived. The attack broke up and, as the enemy pulled back, vital territory was retaken by the supporting infantry.
Anthony Thomas Eeles was born in Brighton on February 7 1921 and educated at Brighton College before attending RMA Woolwich and following his father into the Gunners. He was commissioned in 1940 and posted to the Ayrshire Yeomanry. In 1942 he joined 172 Field Regiment and accompanied his regiment to Tunisia early the following year.
In Italy, Eeles took command of 153 Battery, and led it in the tough slog northwards into Austria. An incident which he enjoyed recounting was the occasion when he was ordered to reconnoitre and occupy an OP. Having found a farmhouse which provided good cover, he left his party some way short of the building, opened the front door and climbed the stairs.
On entering a bedroom, he found himself face to face with a German officer. Both reached for their pistols and fired wildly inaccurate rounds at each other before cutting their losses and hurriedly withdrawing, Eeles down the staircase and the German out of the first floor window.
Eeles’s MC was gazetted in 1944. He saw action in Greece towards the end of the war and subsequently trained as a pilot, flying Austers. A report noted that he was “over-confident to a dangerous degree” and he was encouraged to employ his talents elsewhere.
In 1948 a tour as ADC to the GOC-in-C Western Command included a spell at the War Crimes Court in Germany. He was posted to Korea in 1950 and served in the Forward Marshalling Area HQ before joining 170 Independent Mortar Battery RA. He considered the actions alongside the Northumberland Fusiliers on the Imjin River to have been the most hard-fought of his career.
A staff appointment at Royal Artillery Scottish Command, Edinburgh, was followed by command of the Battleaxe Company, which he prepared for the Suez invasion, and then a spell in the War Office before he retired from the Army in 1958. He then embarked on a series of enterprises, all of which he had been warned to steer well clear of on his resettlement course: market gardens, game farms and importing wine from the continent.
He established the successful Wessex Wines Company before settling happily into the post of office manager for the solicitors Moore and Blatch . He was a skilled carver in wood and an enthusiastic gardener.
Tony Eeles died on July 4. He married first, in 1953, Betty Hayes (née Wyatt). She predeceased him, and he married secondly, in 1960, Valerie Moore (née Hayes), who survives him with a son from each of his marriages and a stepson.
Anthony Thomas Eeles was born in Brighton on February 7 1921 and educated at Brighton College before attending RMA Woolwich and following his father into the Gunners. He was commissioned in 1940 and posted to the Ayrshire Yeomanry. In 1942 he joined 172 Field Regiment and accompanied his regiment to Tunisia early the following year.
In Italy, Eeles took command of 153 Battery, and led it in the tough slog northwards into Austria. An incident which he enjoyed recounting was the occasion when he was ordered to reconnoitre and occupy an OP. Having found a farmhouse which provided good cover, he left his party some way short of the building, opened the front door and climbed the stairs.
On entering a bedroom, he found himself face to face with a German officer. Both reached for their pistols and fired wildly inaccurate rounds at each other before cutting their losses and hurriedly withdrawing, Eeles down the staircase and the German out of the first floor window.
Eeles’s MC was gazetted in 1944. He saw action in Greece towards the end of the war and subsequently trained as a pilot, flying Austers. A report noted that he was “over-confident to a dangerous degree” and he was encouraged to employ his talents elsewhere.
In 1948 a tour as ADC to the GOC-in-C Western Command included a spell at the War Crimes Court in Germany. He was posted to Korea in 1950 and served in the Forward Marshalling Area HQ before joining 170 Independent Mortar Battery RA. He considered the actions alongside the Northumberland Fusiliers on the Imjin River to have been the most hard-fought of his career.
A staff appointment at Royal Artillery Scottish Command, Edinburgh, was followed by command of the Battleaxe Company, which he prepared for the Suez invasion, and then a spell in the War Office before he retired from the Army in 1958. He then embarked on a series of enterprises, all of which he had been warned to steer well clear of on his resettlement course: market gardens, game farms and importing wine from the continent.
He established the successful Wessex Wines Company before settling happily into the post of office manager for the solicitors Moore and Blatch . He was a skilled carver in wood and an enthusiastic gardener.
Tony Eeles died on July 4. He married first, in 1953, Betty Hayes (née Wyatt). She predeceased him, and he married secondly, in 1960, Valerie Moore (née Hayes), who survives him with a son from each of his marriages and a stepson.
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