{"id":9463,"date":"2025-09-08T13:29:55","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T13:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/?p=9463"},"modified":"2026-05-21T18:03:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T18:03:17","slug":"lance-corporal-marcus-beattie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/08\/lance-corporal-marcus-beattie\/","title":{"rendered":"Lance Corporal Marcus Beattie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\n\n

For his service in the war, Dad was awarded the 1939-45 Star, the Africa Star, the Italy Star, the War Medal 1939-45 and the Defence Medal.<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

My father was born on 19th<\/sup> March 1921 in Belfast, N. Ireland.
He served in the Army from 11th<\/sup> March 1939 until 7th<\/sup> August 1946 (Royal Ulster Rifles 1939-1940, then in the 2nd Battalion, London Irish Rifles 1940-1946).
During this period, he took part in various Campaigns including:
North Africa campaign (1940-1943)
Tunisian campaign 1942-1943)
Battle of Sicily (1943)
Battle of Monte Cassino (1944)
While serving with the Central Mediterranean Force and taking part in the Monte Cassino battle Dad was wounded on 16th<\/sup> May and spent a few days in hospital before returning to service. Rome was liberated on 4th<\/sup> June 1944 after a 8 week battle at Monte Cassino and Dad did mention marching into Rome and seeing Pope Pius XII in St.Peter\u2019s Square.<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Following the war, he transferred from RUR to Army Emergency Reserve on 8th<\/sup> August 1946 and served for almost 20 years until being discharged on 14th<\/sup> July 1966.<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

For his service in the war, Dad was awarded the 1939-45 Star, the Africa Star, the Italy Star, the War Medal 1939-45 and the Defence Medal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the war Dad married my Mum (Kathleen) on 21st<\/sup> August 1953 and I was born two years later, he then worked as a postman for over 25 years before retiring in 1986.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, in March 2019 Dad had a fall from which he mostly recovered, though, sadly, he had a stroke while in hospital and passed away three weeks later on 13th<\/sup> June 2019 (at the ripe old age of 98).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometime after Dad died I applied for and received his war records which filled in a few blanks but didn\u2019t really give much new information. I also discovered a box containing documents related to Dad\u2019s time in the Army, neither Mum nor I knew these existed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the war Dad married my Mum (Kathleen) on 21st<\/sup> August 1953 and I was born two years later, he then worked as a postman for over 25 years before retiring in 1986.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, in March 2019 Dad had a fall from which he mostly recovered, though, sadly, he had a stroke while in hospital and passed away three weeks later on 13th<\/sup> June 2019 (at the ripe old age of 98).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometime after Dad died I applied for and received his war records which filled in a few blanks but didn\u2019t really give much new information. I also discovered a box containing documents related to Dad\u2019s time in the Army, neither Mum nor I knew these existed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

his service in the war, Dad was awarded the 1939-45 Star, the Africa Star, the Italy Star, the War Medal 1939-45 and the Defence Medal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the war Dad married my Mum (Kathleen) on 21st<\/sup> August 1953 and I was born two years later, he then worked as a postman for over 25 years before retiring in 1986.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, in March 2019 Dad had a fall from which he mostly recovered, though, sadly, he had a stroke while in hospital and passed away three weeks later on 13th<\/sup> June 2019 (at the ripe old age of 98).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometime after Dad died I applied for and received his war records which filled in a few blanks but didn\u2019t really give much new information. I also discovered a box containing documents related to Dad\u2019s time in the Army, neither Mum nor I knew these existed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For his service in the war, Dad was awarded the 1939-45 Star, the Africa Star, the Italy Star, the War Medal 1939-45 and the Defence Medal. My father was born on 19th March 1921 in Belfast, N. Ireland.He served in the Army from 11th March 1939 until 7th August 1946 (Royal Ulster Rifles 1939-1940, then […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"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=9463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13870,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9463\/revisions\/13870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}