Michael Osborne Waddell MC (22 December 1922 - 22 May 2015) 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 of the

50th Royal Tank Regiment The 50th Royal Tank Regiment (50 RTR) was an armoured regiment of the British Army's Royal Tank Regiment during the Second World War. It was part of the Royal Tank Regiment, itself part of the Royal Armoured Corps. It was formed in June 1939 as ...

who won an immediate

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 ...

for his actions during the invasion of Sicily in 1943 when he saved the lives of eleven men after his column was hit by enemy fire. He studied agriculture at the

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charte ...

before joining the army and claimed that he only enrolled because he feared he would fail his exams. After 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 opposi ...

he returned to Durham where he studied medicine and spent the rest of his life as a general practitioner.Lieutenant Michael Waddell.
Anne Keleny, ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'', 12 June 2015. Retrieved 18 June 2015.

References

External links

*http://www.defencesynergia.co.uk/obituary-dr-michael-osborne-waddell-mc-1922-2015/ 1922 births 2015 deaths 20th-century English medical doctors British Army personnel of World War II Royal Tank Regiment officers People from Corbridge Military personnel from Northumberland Recipients of the Military Cross Alumni of King's College, Newcastle {{British-Army-bio-stub