Major Joseph (John) Stevenson MBE, DCM

John Stevenson was born in County Antrim, Northern Ireland in 1918. He subsequently enlisted in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in 1935 and served with the 2nd Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry (the 52nd) in India.

In February 1941, John answered the call for volunteers for special service, and in due course was posted to No.6 Commando serving as a sergeant instructor at the Commando Special Training Centre at Lochailort, later becoming Company Sergeant Major of the Commando Training Centre at Achnacarry Castle.

On D Day, 6 June 1944, he landed with the 1st Buckinghamshire Battalion, a Territorial unit of the Ox and Bucks, as part of the 6th Beach Group at La Breche near Ouistreham. When the battalion supplied companies for the bridgehead defence, he rejoined 2nd Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry as CSM of Major John Howard’s D Company on 13 July, replacing CSM Richard Flexen who had become a casualty. He remained as CSM with D Company to the end of the Second World War.

John served with the Battalion in the Ardennes, the Rhine Crossing and during the Advance to the Baltic. As a result of his gallantry during the Rhine Crossing he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

On 1 October 1945, CSM Stevenson was appointed Acting Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) of 2nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, serving in Palestine as part of the 6th Airborne Division.He later served as RSM of the 7th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, from 1947 to 1948 and RSM of the 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, from 1948 to 1951.

In 1951, he rejoined the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and was appointed RSM of the 1st Battalion, stationed in Cyprus and then the Canal Zone. He was commissioned towards the end of 1955 and awarded the MBE in the New Year Honours of 1956.

Following his retirement from the Army he lived with his family in Winchester, Hampshire, and worked as a civil servant for the Ministry of Defence until his final retirement in 1983.

In 1954, John married Walburga Tetzlaff with whom he had twin sons, John and Mark. Walburga died in 1977, and later he was married to Jess McDonald, who died in 2000.

John Stevenson passed away in 2002.