Aubrey Valentine Vernon Beaty MC (1 February 1916 – 6 December 2008) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

soldier who won the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

for his bravery in Holland in 1944 and is thought to be the first British soldier serving with ground forces to cross the German frontier during the closing stages of the Second World War.Aubrey Beaty.
''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'', 8 January 2009. Retrieved 20 June 2015.WO 373/51/109.
National Archives. Retrieved 20 June 2015. Beaty enlisted in the Royal Artillery in 1939 and saw action in France with the British Expeditionary Force before joining the evacuation from Dunkirk. He subsequently took part in the

D-Day landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

in June 1944, and was present at the liberation of Brussels and during the advance on Germany through Holland. Beaty was born in Delhi, the son of an officer in the Indian Police. He was educated at Bedford School. After being

demobilised Demobilization or demobilisation (see spelling differences) is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and militar ...

in 1947, he joined

Condé Nast Publications Condé is a French place name and personal name. It is ultimately derived from a Celtic word, "Condate", meaning "confluence" (of two rivers) - from which was derived the Romanised form "Condatum", in use during the Roman period, and thence to t ...

and became a director of ''

Vogue Italia ''Vogue Italia'' is the Italian edition of ''Vogue'' magazine. Owned by Condé Nast International, it has been called the top fashion magazine in the world. It's been in publication since 1964. Name ''Vogue Italia'' was first published as ''N ...

''. He retired to London.

References

1916 births 2009 deaths Recipients of the Military Cross People from Delhi People educated at Bedford School Royal Artillery officers Vogue (magazine) people British Army personnel of World War II {{British-Army-bio-stub