Captain Guy Rigby-Jones
Unit : 181 Airlanding Field Ambulance.
Army No. : 216228
Awards : Military Cross
Captain Rigby-Jones was in command of the only medical glider to land in Sicily on the night of 9th July. In spite of the fact that many of the fighting troops had not arrived, he led his party of ten to the prearranged site for the Regimental Aid Post although the country had not yet been cleared of the enemy. On the following morning this medical detachment, now increased by four combatant soldiers, was waiting in a farm when it was attacked by about 30 Italians. Fighting was somewhat confused in the area at this time. Captain Rigby-Jones decided to counterattack and himself gave covering fire to a party moving round from a flank before he joined in the assault. The enemy were driven off leaving several dead and wounded and 12 prisoners in our hands.
Captain Rigby-Jones then established a small dressing station in his farm where he treated and evacuated thirty wounded both our own and enemy.
On the following day he moved into a main dressing station in Syracuse where his surgical team operated on 22 wounded officers and men.
Throughout this period this officer displayed tremendous energy resource and intiative and spread a tremendous feeling of confidence in his own small command and in the many wounded he treated.
Promoted to Major, Captain Rigby-Jones acted as the Ambulance Specialist Surgeon at the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944. Like so many other medical personnel, who remained behind to care for the wounded when the remnants of the 1st Airborne Division withdrew across the River Rhine to the British lines, Rigby-Jones was taken prisoner.