Lieutenant-Colonel H.P. Mackley
10th Battalion, Highland Light Infantry

Lieutenant-Colonel Mackley accepted responsibility for any casualties that the concentration might cause. Down it came—on scale 5 from every gun in the Division— and it was repeated more than once. There was not a loose round or a British casualty, but the wood was so thoroughly plastered that the enemy ever after gave it a wide berth.

(H.G. Martin, The History of the Fifteenth Scottish Division 1939–1945, 198)

Born on 22 July 1903 in Woodford, Cheshire, Hugh Pelham Mackley was educated at RMC, Sandhurst and commissioned into the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) in 1924. He served overseas in Hong Kong. He was promoted to captain in 1936, and the next year posted to the War Office as general staff officer for physical training. In February 1942, he was appointed commanding officer of the 12th Battalion, Cameronians. The unit took up garrison duty in British occupation of the Faroe Islands in May 1942.

Mackley relinquished command in October 1943, and the 12th Cameronians disbanded several months later. The colonel was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire as part of the King’s 1944 New Year Honours. Nine months later, he finally took command of a battalion in the field.

In July 1944, Lieutenant-Colonel J.D.S. Young of the 10th Battalion, Highland Light Infantry had been relieved by Lieutenant-Colonel D.R. Morgan, who a month later returned to his original unit, 2nd Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. In early September, Mackley arrived to take over the 10th HLI. He faced an especially difficult situation because “Everywhere pandemonium reigned once,” in the words of the 15th Division history.

He commanded for over four months before being replaced by Lieutenant-Colonel R.A. Bramwell-Davis in January 1945. In the postwar army, Mackley held posts in Rangoon, Austria, and Aldershot. He retired at the rank of brigadier in 1961 but would be killed in a car collision in Scotland on 28 June 1967.