
During the Korean War, 74 members of the Light Infantry (made up from the county regiments of Yorkshire (KOYLI), Shropshire (KSLI), Cornwall (DCLI ), Somerset (SLI), Oxford & Bucks (later to become part of the RGJ (Royal Green Jackets) and the Durham (DLI). The county regiments amalgamated in 1968 to form the Light Infantry.
The first British casualties of the Korean War were six deaths on board HMS Jamaica when she was fired upon by North Korean shore batteries on 8 July 1950. The soldiers had went aboard as Ammunition Loaders for the Royal Navy in Hong Kong as a jaunt; of those six deaths; 2 were members of 1st Battalion The Middlesex Regiment (Corporal Stanley Long and Sergeant Bernard Finch) and the other three were members of 58th Medium Regiment Royal Artillery (Gunners's Ralph Barwick, Kenneth Jepson and Sergeant Frederick Mersh). The sixth was Able Seaman JD Mawdsley of HMS Jamaica. These casualties were all buried at sea from HMS Jamaica and are commemorated on the relevant Memorial Wall plaques (Plaques 3 and 4 for the Army personnel and Plaque 1 for the Royal Navy). On 12 August 1950, there were 2 civilian/Press Corps deaths; Mr C Buckley - of the Daily Telegraph and Mr I Morrison of The Times.
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KOREAN WAR: UK MILITARY GRAVES
I am an ex-soldier who served 23 years in the Armed Forces serving within the Light Infantry and Adjutant General's Corps, I have links within the military service/civil service and therefore have various sources of information available. email me at: stephensonjohn@hotmail.com or koreanwaruk_org_uk@hotmail.com or koreanwaruk@hotmail.com
In the period: 1st to 31st July 1953: 23 UK service personnel are recorded as being killed in Korea during July 1953. Three of those killed are buried in the British Commonwealth Cemetery in Yokohama, Japan, 17 are buried in the UN Cemetery in Pusan and the remaining three are listed as having No Known Grave.
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