Rank: Lieutenant
Service Number: 132233
Regiment: Scots Guards, 1st Battalion
Died: 28th April 1943
Age: 26 years old.
Born in Chelsea, London on the 19th June 1917 and baptised on the 26th August in All Saints Church, Birling, Michael was the son of Percy Llewelyn Nevill ( the son of the Hon. Ralph Pelham Nevill) and his wife, Marjorie Nevill (née Nevill). She was the daughter of Lord George Montacute Nevill. They had married on the 10th June 1905. His father had served as a Major in the Royal Garrison Artillery but now had private means. Michael had five older sisters, Joan, Sylvia, Ruby, Rosemary and Cicely. The family lived with their servants at 'Birling House' in the village of Birling, Kent.
On the 1939 Register Michael is recorded as being at Birling House and having 'private means' but also that he had his name down for the Scots Guards.
On the 26th January 1940 he joined an Officer Cadet Training Unit at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. Commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on the 25th May 1940, he joined the Scots Guards.
Michael married Maureen Ethné David of West Malling, Kent on the 27th July 1940 in the Guards Chapel at Wellington Barracks in London. They had two children David Michael Ralph Nevill born on the 20th June 1941 and Michael George Rathmore Nevill born on the 14th July 1943.
On the 26th February 1943 the Scots Guards embarked for North Africa. Michael was killed in action on the 28th April 1943.
David Erskine in his book 'The Scots Guards 1919 – 1955' says of this day:
'In the meantime to the west Right Flank had almost reached the top of the Bou, but was held up by very heavy point-blank fire from the summit and the flanks; fifty yards from the top, snipers took a very heavy toll; Lieutenant M.G.R. Nevill and his servant Guardsman Green, two well-known characters in the Battalion, were among those killed'.
Michael was buried in Massicault War Cemetery. He is also commemorated on the War Memorial outside All Saints Church in Birling.
A more unusual memorial to him is the village pub. The Bull Inn in Birling was renamed in 1954 to 'The Nevill Bull' in memory of Michael.
Michael's widow Maureen did re-marry. On the 2nd July 1947 she married a Naval Officer, Lieutenant John Valentine Balfour DSC. They had three sons, Andrew, Matthew and Crispin. John Balfour died in Birling on the 8th February 2001 at the age of seventy nine.
(Sources: CWGC, Ancestry, Find My Past, IWM, Newspapers Archives, Scots Guards)
(Bio: Woose)
Rank: Lieutenant
Service Number: 132233
Regiment: Scots Guards, 1st Battalion
Died: 28th April 1943
Age: 26 years old.
Born in Chelsea, London on the 19th June 1917 and baptised on the 26th August in All Saints Church, Birling, Michael was the son of Percy Llewelyn Nevill ( the son of the Hon. Ralph Pelham Nevill) and his wife, Marjorie Nevill (née Nevill). She was the daughter of Lord George Montacute Nevill. They had married on the 10th June 1905. His father had served as a Major in the Royal Garrison Artillery but now had private means. Michael had five older sisters, Joan, Sylvia, Ruby, Rosemary and Cicely. The family lived with their servants at 'Birling House' in the village of Birling, Kent.
On the 1939 Register Michael is recorded as being at Birling House and having 'private means' but also that he had his name down for the Scots Guards.
On the 26th January 1940 he joined an Officer Cadet Training Unit at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. Commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on the 25th May 1940, he joined the Scots Guards.
Michael married Maureen Ethné David of West Malling, Kent on the 27th July 1940 in the Guards Chapel at Wellington Barracks in London. They had two children David Michael Ralph Nevill born on the 20th June 1941 and Michael George Rathmore Nevill born on the 14th July 1943.
On the 26th February 1943 the Scots Guards embarked for North Africa. Michael was killed in action on the 28th April 1943.
David Erskine in his book 'The Scots Guards 1919 – 1955' says of this day:
'In the meantime to the west Right Flank had almost reached the top of the Bou, but was held up by very heavy point-blank fire from the summit and the flanks; fifty yards from the top, snipers took a very heavy toll; Lieutenant M.G.R. Nevill and his servant Guardsman Green, two well-known characters in the Battalion, were among those killed'.
Michael was buried in Massicault War Cemetery. He is also commemorated on the War Memorial outside All Saints Church in Birling.
A more unusual memorial to him is the village pub. The Bull Inn in Birling was renamed in 1954 to 'The Nevill Bull' in memory of Michael.
Michael's widow Maureen did re-marry. On the 2nd July 1947 she married a Naval Officer, Lieutenant John Valentine Balfour DSC. They had three sons, Andrew, Matthew and Crispin. John Balfour died in Birling on the 8th February 2001 at the age of seventy nine.
(Sources: CWGC, Ancestry, Find My Past, IWM, Newspapers Archives, Scots Guards)
(Bio: Woose)
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