Staff Sergeant Mark Leaver

Mark Leaver served with No 10 Flight, G Squadron, No 1 Wing of the Glider Pilot Regiment during World War II. He flew with his co-pilot Staff Sergeant Eric Holloway to Holland as part of Operation Market Garden and took off in the second lift from RAF Fairford on Monday 18 September in a Horsa (Chalk Number 1003) towed by a Short Stirling from 190 Squadron (RAF) with a cargo of 5 sappers, jeep, trailer and explosives.

Mark Leaver later recalled:

'The first period up to the time of the death of my co-pilot is very clear and vivid, also my escape across the Neder Rhine on the night of the 25th morning of the 26th September 1944 and my subsequent journey back to my home airfield in Fairford. The period from the 21st to the 25th consisted of patrols, resisting Panzer/SS Infantry attacks, being bayoneted in the mouth (I don’t recommend it, although the teeth extraction is cheap!) and being wounded in my left arm. The facial wound being due to my Sten gun jamming at a most unfortunate moment (a little dust in the magazine and they were useless).'

He also recalled how the tree outside the Old Kirk in Oosterbeek saved his life:

“I was standing by the tree in front of the Church (to the right as you face the Church from the main road) in a patrol of five when a mortar shell landed to the left of the tree. The other four in the patrol were all killed, but I did not receive any physical injury. The tree is still standing and the scar caused by the shell is now in the shape of a heart”.

Mark passed away in October 2000 before his great wish to have a plaque placed at the foot of the tree was realised. However, on Thursday 20 September 2001, at 2.30 pm a plaque, erected by his Dutch friends and adopted by the Church Council, was unveiled by his widow Mrs. Muriel Leaver. The simple inscription reads:

Photos by kind permission of Bob Hilton