![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.irishbrigade.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/John-Glennie-200x300.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nBorn in Enniskillen in 1923, John Glennie attended the town\u2019s Portora Royal School. He was commissioned into the Royal Ulster Rifles and posted to the Royal Irish Fusiliers in Sicily in August 1943.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy mother (Glennie\u2019s sister) spoke openly and very, very emotionally about her brother,\u201d Lawson said. \u201cShe adored him very much. His loss stuck with her, her whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawson discovered the circumstances of his uncle\u2019s death during a morning attack across the River Trigno on Italy\u2019s Adriatic coast in the early hours of 28 October 1943 when he found a YouTube documentary film about the battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This included an account of the attack and Glennie\u2019s death written by Faughs\u2019 captain Lawrie Franklyn-Vaile, his company commander at the time, to his wife in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This prompted him to examine a box of documents about Glennie. These included several that Lawson\u2019s mother Muriel had written to Glennie unaware that he had been killed in action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey had been returned because the addressee was deceased\u2026She (Muriel) left them sealed,\u201d Lawson said. \u201cThis afternoon I gently opened them to read them. A more moving afternoon I haven\u2019t had for a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Others included several sent to Glennie\u2019s mother by Glenys from Prestatyn who Glennie met in January 1943 while training in North Wales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey met and fell in love with each other,\u201d says Lawson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Says Lawson: \u201cHe was a deeply religious young man. One of the personal possessions we have that was returned was the bible he kept with him at all times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawson\u2019s father Quentin flew Thunderbolt fighter aircraft in 79 Squadron in the Burma campaign. He was mentioned in dispatches and one of the letters Lawson has includes one to his father from Lord Louis Mountbatten commending him for his gallantry. Returning to Northern Ireland, Quentin Lawson became general manager of the Taylor-Woods factory in Enniskillen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
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Actor Charlie Lawson well known for playing the role of Jim McDonald in the TV soap Coronation Street spoke this week about his uncle John Glennie, a lieutenant in the Royal Irish Fusiliers who was killed in the Italian campaign in 1943. Born in Enniskillen in 1923, John Glennie attended the town\u2019s Portora Royal School. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":15527,"menu_order":60,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-23806","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23807,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23806\/revisions\/23807"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}