Major-General Sir Jeremy Moore

Sep 18 2007 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

IT WAS totally unexpected. Most people accepted that the old country had gone soft on pop music, soap operas and junk food.

This drift was punctuated by depressing news of industrial strife.

Only the even more depressing news of soldiers, civilians and terrorists being killed in Northern Ireland reminded us of our military heritage.

And then, almost out of the blue, we were engaged in an old fashioned, colonial-style war to regain the Falkland Islands from the Argentinians.

Where? We referred to our atlases and saw these forgotten smudges in the south Atlantic.

However, behind the scenes and unsung, some Britons had been working tirelessly to maintain the high traditions of the armed services. Among them was Jeremy Moore, who commanded the land forces which prised back the Falklands in that dramatic summer of 1982.

Thirty-five years earlier, after an education at Cheltenham College, Moore, who had been born into a military family, joined the Royal Marines.

For three years, he fought in the Malayan jungle with 40 Commando RM, gaining his first MC for gallantry during a patrol and ambush during which 221 Chinese Communist guerrillas were killed or captured for the loss of 31 commandos.

In 1962, he received a bar to his MC in a bloody operation to release British hostages taken by rebels in Brunei.

By 1971, Moore was a lieutenant-colonel with 42 Commando in Northern Ireland. During this time, he led operations to break up the IRA’s self-declared “no-go” zones. He was appointed OBE for these services in 1973.

There followed spells with the Royal Marines School of Music and the Royal College of Defence Studies, before Argentina seized the Falkland Islands.

As commander of the land forces, Moore was forced to order the famous 60-mile “yomp” from San Carlos to Port Stanley, after the loss of six equipment-carrying helicopters, which had been on board the Atlantic Conveyor, sunk by an Exocet Missile on May 25.

When victory was secured at a cost of 255 British and 650 Argentinian lives, there were great celebrations.

Britain’s international reputation had been restored and Major-General Moore had played a major part in that. He was knighted that year.

In more recent times, Sir Jeremy, married with three children, had been much in demand as a speaker.

Major-General Sir Jeremy Moore, soldier; born July 5, 1928, died September 15, 2007.