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Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Hamilton Payne Crawfurd
Unit : Headquarters Royal Artillery, Divisional Headquarters, 1st Airborne Division
Army No. : 38366
Charles Crawfurd was born in 1907 and educated at Fonthill, East Grinstead, Sussex, then the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, Devon, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.
He was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1927 and saw his first service with 19th Brigade, Royal Artillery. He then served as part of the British Army of the Rhine, Germany, 1927-1929; then as Aide de Camp to Lieutenant-General Sir William Thwaites, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, British Army of the Rhine, 1929. He was promoted to full Lieutenant in 1930 and went back to serve with 19th Field Brigade, Royal Artillery until 1934.
Promoted to Captain in 1938, Crawfurd saw service in Belgium and France whilst commanding 29th Battery, 19th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery in support of the 3rd Infantry Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, of the British Expeditionary Force, 1939-1940. He was temporarily promoted to Major during April-May 1940 and was evacuated from Dunkirk in June 1940.
Crawfurd was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1942 and was appointed as the Commander Royal Artillery to the 1st Airborne Division in October of that year. Here he was responsible for welding together the different independent artillery units of the Airborne Division, all of which had been converted from existing formations and then brought up to strength with volunteers.
In April 1943 he, along with his Headquarters, the 1st Airlanding Light Regiment, the 1st and 2nd Airlanding Anti-Tank Batteries left for North Africa. Here they trained for and planned the invasion of Sicily, the first major airborne operation of Britain's Airborne Forces.
He was killed in action on the 13th July 1943, whilst accompanying the landings around Primosole Bridge by the 1st Parachute Brigade. He now lies at rest in Catania C.W.G.C. Cemetery, 2. J. 23. Son of the Right Reverend Lionel Payne Crawfurd, M.A., D.D., Lord Bishop Suffragan of Stafford, and Ina Crawfurd; husband of Rosabel Crawfurd, of Eccleshall, Staffordshire.
My thanks to Bob Hilton for this account.