Lieutenant-Colonel Giles Alexander Meysey Vandeleur, DSO (2 September 1911 – 9 March 1978) 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 ...

officer during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He was the only son of Alexander Moore Vandeleur of Cahercon, Kildysart, Co. Clare, Ireland and the Hon. Violet Meysey-Thompson. His father belonged to the prominent landowning family from

Kilrush Kilrush () is a coastal town in County Clare, Ireland. It is also the name of a civil parish and an ecclesiastical parish in Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe. It is located near the mouth of the River Shannon in the south-west of the county. ...

County Clare County Clare ( ga, Contae an Chláir) is a county in Ireland, in the Southern Region and the province of Munster, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council is the local authority. The county had a population of 118,817 ...

. His mother was a daughter of

Henry Meysey-Thompson, 1st Baron Knaresborough Henry Meysey Meysey-Thompson, 1st Baron Knaresborough (30 August 1845 – 3 March 1929) was a Liberal (and later Liberal Unionist) politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1880 and 1905 when he was raised to the peerage as Ba ...

. His father was killed in action in the early months of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

; his mother remarried Sir

Algar Howard Sir Algar Henry Stafford Howard (7 August 1880 – 14 February 1970) was a senior British Army officer and long-serving officer of arms at the College of Arms in London. He served as the Garter Principal King of Arms from 1944 to 1950 before re ...

. He was commissioned into the

Irish Guards The Irish Guards (IG), is one of the Foot Guards regiments of the British Army and is part of the Guards Division. Together with the Royal Irish Regiment, it is one of the two Irish infantry regiments in the British Army. The regiment has parti ...

as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1931. As acting Commanding Officer of the 2nd Armoured Battalion Irish Guards, he served under his cousin

Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. In ...

Joe Vandeleur (their grandfathers were brothers) in the breakout of XXX Corps during

Operation Market-Garden Operation Market Garden was an Allied military operation during the Second World War fought in the Netherlands from 17 to 27 September 1944. Its objective was to create a salient into German territory with a bridgehead over the River Rhine, c ...

. He went on to become acting commander of the British 5th Guards Armoured Brigade in 1945. He retired from the Army in 1949.Army Record
/ref> In the 1977 film '' A Bridge Too Far'', based on Operation Market-Garden, Michael Byrne played Giles Vandeleur and

Michael Caine Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades, and is considered a British film ico ...

played Joe. He was married four times: firstly to Jean Salmond, and secondly to Pamela Wood: both marriages ended in divorce. He married thirdly Margarita de Lỏpez, who died in 1970, and fourthly Esmếe Hutcheson, who died in 1973. Vandeleur died on 9 March 1978.Death notice published in ''The Times'', 13 March 1978

References

Irish Guards officers British Army personnel of World War II 1911 births 1978 deaths Companions of the Distinguished Service Order {{UK-army-bio-stub