Private John A Gregory

John Albert Gregory enlisted into the Royal Navy as a Stoker (KX710380) in 1944. He then transferred into the Lincolnshire Regiment and volunteered for airborne forces, qualifying as a military parachutist on course B150 which ran at RAF Ringway from 24 January to 8 February 1945.

He was posted to 7th Parachute Battalion, serving in Headquarters Company's Medium Machine Gun Platoon under Sergeant W Ricketts and Lieutenant R Norton. Private Gregory flew from RAF Boreham and was in aircraft number L/233 under the command of Ricketts to take part in Operation Varsity, where he was wounded, probably on 25 March 1945.

Gregory was operated on by a German field unit, possibly from the 7th Fallschirmjäger Division. On return to England he stayed at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, where he met his future wife Sybil who was a Staff Nurse. Gregory was then medically graded C3 and became a driver in a Motor Transport pool. He was stationed at Greenwich power station during the severe winter of 1947 shovelling coke, and demoblised on 19 November 1947.