Lieutenant-Colonel Mark Darell-Brown
2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry

After an intense bombardment lasting more than an hour the enemy put in an attack on the locality supported by tanks and self-propelled guns. Throughout the bombardment and the attack Major Darrell Brown moved freely and fearlessly round the most exposed positions held by his men encouraging them. By his magnificent example and adjusting their disposition to mete the casualties being inflicted. This officers outstanding leadership and courage were factors of the greatest importance in the successful outcome of the battle.

(D.S.O. citation, 31 Aug 1944)

Born in Elham, Kent on 8 March 1910, Mark Darell-Brown was commissioned into the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in 1930 and before the war served in Burma. By 1944, he had become second-in-command of the 2nd Battalion, which had converted to glider infantry in 1943 and joined the 6th Airborne Division in 1943.

During the division’s landings over Normandy, commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel M.W. Roberts was injured and evacuated. Darell-Brown took over during the subsequent fighting and earned the D.S.O., having “shown himself a fine and skilful leader.” Although Roberts would resume command, by October 1944 after the division had been withdrawn to the United Kingdom, he “had been wafted to the divisional staff.” Darell-Brown commanded the battalion when it returned to the continent in late December 1944 until the end of the war.

Darell-Brown died on 18 May 1963 in London.