Pte Leslie Grier

York 8 Jul 1919 ◐ – Dec 1957

Pte Leslie Thomas "Jock" GRIER, 4801924, of 11 Platoon, C Company, 156 Parachute Battalion (his page in The Battle of Arnhem Archive; London Gazette, p. 4684)

About: A Bren gunner of 11 Platoon, C Company, 156 Parachute Battalion, ◐ Murphy's own platoon, whom ⚠︎ The Battle of Arnhem Archive has carrying the fatally wounded Lt Donaldson to safety in a blanket with Pte Lewis Kemp. Wounded in the head and taken prisoner, he was held at Stalag XI-B, Fallingbostel, the camp ◐ Murphy's own notes name as the one he was freed from in April 1945, a placement that rests on those notes alone.

Unit or role: Private, No. 11 Platoon, C Company, 156 Parachute Battalion; a Bren gunner, with Lewis Kemp "the no.2 on his Bren gun" (Grier); "4801924 Pte. L. T. GRIER" (London Gazette, p. 4684); "Army Air Corps" as the unit in Kew's catalogue of his German record cards (WO 416/151/8; the cards not seen).

Where: York; India; Arnhem and Oosterbeek; St Joseph's hospital, Apeldoorn; Stalag XI-B, Fallingbostel, prisoner 118351 (Grier; WO 416/151/8); after the war Leicester, Suffolk, Peterborough and Grantham (Grier).

Evidence: ⚠︎ his page in The Battle of Arnhem Archive, which thanks William Lawrence and Bob Hilton for the account and names no other source (Grier); ✓ the London Gazette of 20 September 1945 (p. 4684); ✓ the General Register Office's index, as transcribed by FreeBMD (FreeBMD); ◐ Kew's catalogue entry for his German record cards (WO 416/151/8; the cards not seen).

His Archive page has him born at Bedern, York, on 8 July 1919, to William and Ellen, née Dunbar (Grier). ✓ The birth index has a Leslie T. Grier, mother's maiden name Dunbar, registered at York in the September quarter of 1919; ◐ the same man, by the name, the mother's name and the place (FreeBMD). ◐ Kew's catalogue of his German cards gives the day as 18 July 1919 (see Where the sources disagree).

By the same page he enlisted in the Lincolnshire Regiment on 27 November 1936 and joined its 1st Battalion in India. Having completed parachute course 31 or 32 at Chaklala in October 1942, he joined the 151st Parachute Battalion before it was renumbered the 156th (Grier). Murphy's family's service list has Murphy himself, not Grier, "with 151st–156th Para-Troops Regiment"; ParaData has the 151st raised at Delhi from British Army volunteers in October 1941 and renamed the 156th in November 1942 (the service list; ParaData, 151 Bn; ParaData, 156 Bn).

Grantham. ⚠︎ His sister, Catherine Jean "Kitty" Grier, told a story of the time after the battalion came back to Britain in 1943. In a pub in Grantham, told that the whisky behind the bar was kept for the American troops stationed round the town, he "drew a pistol from his tunic", fired two shots towards the bottles, threw the pistol on the table and left; she carried the loaded pistol home in her handbag, and "Leslie was never officially associated with the incident" (Grier).

Arnhem. By his Archive page he flew in "aboard aircraft No.634 with the Second Lift on Monday 18th September 1944". The page puts him with Lt Donaldson, ◐ Murphy's platoon commander, on 20 September:

On Wednesday 20th September, the remnants of the 156 Parachute Battalion were attempting to reach the Oosterbeek Perimeter, during the course of which Lieutenant Donaldson, the commander of No.11 Platoon, was fatally wounded. Grier and the no.2 on his Bren gun, Private Lewis Kemp, dashed out and carried him to safety by using a blanket as a stretcher.

— The Battle of Arnhem Archive · Private Leslie Grier · Grier

⚠︎ The page gives no source for this, and it does not put Murphy or Walsh with Donaldson. Murphy told it otherwise: "Sam Welsh and I intended to carry the Officer, but the Gerries appeared again and immediately shot Mr Donaldson behind the ear" (memoir, p. 7). Walsh's report has Donaldson "shot through the leg and arm" on Thursday 21 September; Walsh got him to a house, and "I had not gone more than 10 or 12 yards from the house where I left him before I heard a single shot which definitely came from that house" (Walsh). Most of the Commission's records give Donaldson's death as 21 September and its website the 20th (the Commission's documents). The accounts are set side by side on William Donaldson, Lewis Kemp and under Still open; the battle is on Arnhem.

Hackett's Hollow. The page goes on:

Later that day, during the fighting around Hackett's Hollow, Grier did excellent work with his Bren and was recommended for the Military Medal, but this was ultimately reduced to Mentioned in Despatches. Both he and his No.2 were subsequently wounded by shrapnel, Grier in the head, Kemp in the ankle, and taken prisoner.

— The Battle of Arnhem Archive · Private Leslie Grier · Grier

The recommendation itself has not been found: Kew's catalogue of award recommendations, WO 373, has no entry under his name or his number (the search, 28 October 2026).

Prisoner. At St Joseph's hospital, Apeldoorn, he "is said to have struggled out of his bed" and turned a photograph of Hitler to the wall, a story the page says "has also been attributed to Private Flamberg of Support Company". On 2 October 1944 he was sent to Germany in a cattle truck, and on 6 October he reached Stalag XI-B, Fallingbostel, where he became prisoner 118351 and was in the camp hospital until 23 November (Grier). ◐ Kew's catalogue has his German record cards: "Leslie [T] Grier", born at York, a private of the Army Air Corps, captured on 27 September 1944, "Stalag XIB Fallingbostel", prisoner 118351, five cards (WO 416/151/8; the cards not seen). The prisoner number matches the Archive's; the date of birth and the service number do not (below).

Murphy's camp was the same: his typed notes give it as "STALAG 11 B - FALLINBOSTEL", and his typed memoir has him taken "eventually to STALAG 11B" and "released from STALAG" in April 1945 (typed pp. 1–3; typed memoir, p. 2; the manuscript, p. 7, has two upright strokes before the B, and p. 9 the release; more on Captivity). No source puts the two together there, and nothing held says where Grier was when the camp was freed.

The mention. ✓ He was mentioned in despatches in the Arnhem list of 20 September 1945, "4801924 Pte. L. T. GRIER" (London Gazette, p. 4684).

Later life. His Archive page has him marry Christine Sharman in Leicester in 1946, the two separating after a time; ✓ the marriage index has a Leslie T. Grier and a Sharman at Leicester in the June quarter of 1946; ◐ the same man, by the name, the place and the year (FreeBMD). By the page he went back to the Lincolnshire Regiment on 31 January 1947 and was "likely demobbed shortly after", and "struggled to settle down in the post-war period", working for the Hotpoint Electric Appliance Company and as a floor-layer and metal polisher, and living at Leicester, in Suffolk, at Peterborough and at Grantham. ⚠︎ The page also has him fined £5 at Grantham Court in 1949 "for being in possession of stolen goods", and says that in 1957 he "appeared in a local newspaper for having failed to stop his bicycle at a road junction, for which he was fined £1"; it names no newspaper or court record for either (Grier).

Death. In 1957 he was living on a houseboat on the River Nene at Peterborough, and "He tragically drowned a week before Christmas that year, aged 38. The inquest recorded an open verdict" (Grier). ✓ The death index has a Leslie T. Grier, aged 38, registered in the December quarter of 1957 in the district it gives as "Hunts.N."; ◐ the same man, by the name, the age and the quarter, since the index gives no place of death or occupation (FreeBMD).

• His birthday. 8 July 1919 on his Archive page (Grier); 18 July 1919 in Kew's catalogue of his German cards (WO 416/151/8). The birth index gives the quarter only (FreeBMD). Not settled.
• His number. 4801924 in the Gazette and on the Archive page (p. 4684; Grier); 2701924 in Kew's catalogue (WO 416/151/8). ◐ One man by the name, York, the year of birth, the camp and the prisoner number; whether the card or the cataloguer has the 27, unseen.
• When he was taken. The Archive page gives no day: it dates the fighting it describes to 20 September 1944 ("Later that day") and has both men wounded "subsequently", and Kemp's account on the same page has "25? Sep 1944" (Grier); 27 September 1944 in Kew's catalogue (WO 416/151/8). Kew's catalogue has 20 September 1944 for the capture of ◐ Lewis Kemp, the other man wounded with him, if that card is his (WO 416/206/333). Not settled; neither card has been seen.
• How Donaldson died. Carried to safety in a blanket by Grier and Kemp, on Grier's page; shot behind the ear in the house after the Germans came, in Murphy's memoir; a single shot from the house, heard by Walsh as he was led away (above, With Murphy).

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