Lieutenant-Colonel J.H. Child Pearson
5th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment

“I’ve never been so frightened in my life,” were the last words that Lt. Col. J.H.C. Pearson spoke to his signals officer striding forward alone, his customary red rose in his buttonhole and his walking stick in his hand As he crossed over the bridge, urging his men onward with the stick, he fell dead, shot by a sniper in the trees.

(Cited from Douglas Burton, BBC WW2 People’s War, 2004)

Born on 26 July 1913 in West Derby, Lancashire, John Harold Child Pearson was a graduate of Royal Military College, Sandhurst and a Regular Army officer, commissioned with the Prince of Wales Volunteers (South Lancashire Regiment) since 1933. By the invasion of Normandy, he had been assigned to the 5th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment as second-in-command. When Lieutenant-Colonel N.C.E. Kenrick was wounded and evacuated on 1 July 1944, Pearson took over.

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