March 30, 2023
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Major General Julian Howard Atherden Thompson (7 October 1934) is a military historian and former Royal Marines officer who commanded 3 Commando Brigade during the Falklands War.

Thompson joined the Royal Marines in 1952. He was appointed commanding officer of 40 Commando in 1975 and commander of 3 Commando Brigade in 1981 and in that role was British land commander on the islands during the first phase of the conflict ashore. He retired in 1986.

In retirement he has written extensively on the Falklands conflict and other aspects of British military history including the Iraq War. He was also a visiting professor at the department of War Studies, King's College, University of London.


Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Jones (14 May 1940 - 28 May 1982), known as H. Jones, was a British army officer and posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross. He was awarded the VC after being killed in action during the Battle of Goose Green for his actions as commanding officer of 2 Battalion, Parachute Regiment during the Falklands War.

Jones was born in Putney the eldest of three sons of Herbert Jones (1888 - 1957), an American artist, and his Welsh wife, Olwen Pritchard (1902 - 1990), a nurse. He attended St. Peter's Preparatory School in Seaford, Sussex and Eton College. He joined the British Army on leaving school and on graduation from the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst on 23 July 1960, was commissioned into the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment as a second lieutenant. He was promoted to lieutenant on 23 January 1962, captain on 23 July 1966, and major on 31 December 1972,. At this time he was brigade major at HQ 3rd Infantry Brigade in Northern Ireland. As such he was responsible for the efforts to find Captain Robert Nairac who had been abducted by the Provisional IRA. Nairac and Jones had become friends and would sometimes go to the Jones household for supper. After a four day search, the Garda Síochána confirmed that Nairac had been shot and killed in the Republic of Ireland after being smuggled over the border. On 13 December 1977 he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his services in Northern Ireland that year. On 30 June 1979 he was promoted lieutenant colonel, and on 1 December 1979, he was transferred to the Parachute Regiment. In the 1981 New Year Honours he was promoted to Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

During the Falklands War he was in command of 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment (2 PARA). During an attack against entrenched Argentinian positions, with his unit pinned down by heavy fire, he led a charge against the nearest position. He was killed while doing so but the Argentinian unit surrendered shortly afterwards. For his actions he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. His Victoria Cross is displayed at the National Army Museum in Chelsea, London, England.

Command of 2 PARA passed to Major Chris Keeble, and Jones was buried at Ajax Bay on 30 May near where he died of wounds. After the war his body was exhumed and buried at the Blue Beach War Cemetery in Port San Carlos on 25 October.

Few historians have disputed his valour. However, ex-TA Para officer and military theorist Spencer Fitz-Gibbon wrote in 1995 that despite his undoubted courage H did more to hinder than to help 2 Para, losing sight of the overall battle picture and failing to allow his sub-unit commanders to exercise Mission Command, before his fatal attempt to lead "A" Company forward from the position where they had become bogged down.

Jones is buried in the Blue Beach War Cemetery under a headstone which is topped by the Parachute Regiment's insignia and also features an image of the Victoria Cross. The headstone includes the quotation "He is not the beginning but the continuing of the same unto the end." A memorial stone to all those killed at the scene of the battle, near Darwin, also bears his name. His name is also on the South Atlantic Task Force Memorial in St Paul's Cathedral, London, on the wall with the names of the fallen in the Falklands Memorial Chapel at Pangbourne College, and the Parachute Regiment Memorial at their headquarters in Aldershot; he also has a memorial in the cloisters of Eton College and a plaque on a footpath at Kingswear, Devon. The memorial board from St Peter's School, carved with the name of Jones can be seen in Seaford Museum. In addition the 'Colonel H' Public house in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk is named in his honor. There is a wooden plaque memorial in Kingswear parish church and a copy of the citation is on view near the memorial.

Jones's widow, Sara, was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for charity work (she is involved with a number of charities related to the armed forces) and since 2003 has been a Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire. Both of their sons, Brigadier Rupert Jones MBE and David Jones served as infantry officers in the Devon and Dorsets (now merged into The Rifles). Rupert was appointed MBE in the 2001 Queen's Birthday Honours.


Major General Sir John Jeremy Moore (5 July 1928 - 15 September 2007) was the commander of the British land forces during the Falklands War in 1982. Moore received the surrender of the Argentine forces on the islands.

Moore came from a military family. His father, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Moore, and paternal grandfather, who joined the York and Lancaster Regiment as a private, were both awarded the Military Cross in 1916 during World War I. His maternal grandfather was wounded at Tel el-Kebir in 1880, and later commanded the 4th Hussars.

He was educated at Brambletye School in East Grinstead and at Cheltenham College. He intended to join the Fleet Air Arm after leaving school, but was discouraged by relatively poor exam results. He joined the Royal Marines in 1947, intending to transfer, and enjoyed Royal Marine service so much that he spent the next 36 years in the Corps. After basic training, and service at sea in the cruiser HMS Sirius, he joined X Troop of 40 Commando in Malaya in November 1950, during the Emergency. He first received a major military accolade in 1952 when he was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry after he and his men fought a pitched battle with communist insurgents in the Malayan jungle.

After attending the Australian Army Staff College in 1963 to 1964, he served with the 17th Gurkha Division in Borneo in 1965, countering Indonesian insurgents, and was Assistant Secretary to the Chiefs of Staff Committee at the MOD from 1966 to 1968. He served as amphibious operations officer on HMS Bulwark in 1968 to 1969.

He later served as Housemaster of the Royal Marines School of Music in Deal, Kent in 1954, as an instructor at the NCO's School, as adjutant with 45 Commando from 1957 to 1959, spending much time in operations against EOKA in Cyprus, and then as an instructor at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst until 1962. He was posted to Brunei to join 42 Commando, as a company commander and later adjutant. While a company commander, he was awarded a Bar to the Military Cross in December 1962 when he led an attack against rebels holding the town of Limbang in the Sarawak area of Borneo, rescuing British and Australian hostages. He and his men were ferried across a river by Royal Navy Lieutenant Jeremy Black, who went on to command HMS Invincible in the Falklands War.

He led the 42 Commando on a tour of duty in the then Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) stronghold of New Lodge. On promotion to Lieutenant Colonel in 1971, Moore was appointed in command of 42 Commando, completing two tours of duty in Northern Ireland, including participation in the high profile Operation Motorman to eliminate areas proclaimed by the IRA as “no-go” to the Army and police. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1973.

He commanded the Royal Marines School of Music from 1973 to 1975, and then studied at the Royal College of Defence Studies in 1976. He commanded 3 Commando Brigade from 1977 until he was promoted to Major General in 1979 and took command of all Royal Marine commando forces. He was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1982, and was on the verge of retirement when the Commandant General Royal Marines, Lieutenant General Sir Steuart Pringle, was badly injured by a bomb planted by the IRA. Moore remained as Major-General Commando Forces to cover for Pringle while he recovered.

Moore was handing over to the recuperated Pringle when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands on 2 April 1982. He joined the task force planning team at Northwood before flying south to take command of land forces in theater. His planning post was taken by Lieutenant General Richard Trant. Moore relieved Brigadier Julian Thompson as ground commander when he arrived shortly before the 5th Infantry Brigade, traveling ahead on the HMS Antrim to reach the islands on 30 May. Moore implemented the plans proposed by Thompson, with the British soldiers forced to march across the inhospitable islands in the absence of sufficient helicopters and into the teeth of Argentine resistance. He accepted the surrender of the Argentinian commander, General de Brigada Mario Menéndez, in Port Stanley on 14 June 1982.

He was promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1982 after his command in the Falklands, and left the Marines in 1983. He became Director General of the Food Manufacturers Federation, but left 18 months later. Later in life, he raised money for research into liver diseases after having a liver transplant. He was Colonel Commandant of the Royal Marines from 1990 to 1993, and joined the parade to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War at Horse Guards Parade and the Mall on 17 June 2007.

He married his wife, Veryan, in 1966. They had two daughters and a son. In later years, he suffered from arthritis and prostate cancer.

He died on 15 September 2007, aged 79, survived by his wife and three children.