A E C Vizard

Major Arthur Vizard was born on 5 September 1918, a month before his father was killed in action. He was educated at the Royal British Orphan School in London and the Duke of York Military School, Dover. At 18 he joined the 8th Middlesex Regiment and did a tour of duty in Northern Ireland before being posted to 70th Young Soldiers Battalion DLI. From there, in December 1942, he transferred to the 16th Battalion DLI in North Africa, commanding A Company during the advance to Tunis. In September 1943 the battalion was transferred to Italy, and took part in the capture of Salerno. However, Major Vizard was wounded in a German counter-attack and had to be taken by hospital ship to Tripolis. In November 1943 he returned to 16 DLI, by now stationed in Syria, and in March 1944 went back to Italy, where the battalion took part in operations against the German Gothic Line of defence. He then went with the battalion in December 1944 to Greece for internal security operations and to train the Greek National Guard before returning once again to Italy for the advance into Austria in 1945. The battalion was disbanded on 16 February 1946. After the war Major Vizard worked in industry. He died from a stroke in early April 2004.