Major Hugh Peter de Lancy Samwell was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the 7th Battalion The Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders in January 1938. He was shipped to Egypt in June 1942 as part of...view moreMajor Hugh Peter de Lancy Samwell was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the 7th Battalion The Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders in January 1938. He was shipped to Egypt in June 1942 as part of the 51st Highland Division in preparation for the Second Battle of El Alamein, promoted to Major, and then fought with the Eighth Army across Libya and on to Sicily.
Wounded in Italy, he was awarded the Military Cross and returned home to recuperate in November 1943. He wrote daily during his time in North Africa and Italy. In April 1944 his battalion transferred to East Anglia in preparation for D-Day and by the end of the year the 51st was on the Dutch/Belgian border.
It was there, on 12 January 1945 that an advance party of 51st Highlanders was ambushed by the enemy and the man leading, as ever, from the front, Major Hugh Samwell, was killed, aged only 33 years.view less