Lieutenant-Colonel John Hopwood
1st Battalion, Black Watch

I was standing there on top of this bloody tank and suddenly I felt a red hot pain in my chest and I was on the ground. Horrible noise. And I thought hell … I thought that’s the death rattle isn’t it [laughs] and I thought I was dead. And I felt very sorry for everybody at home, they’d miss me, that sort of thing. And then I realized I wasn’t dead, fortunately.

(J.A. Hopwood, interview, Feb 1987)

Born on 26 January 1910, John Adam Hopwood joined the Black Watch in 1930 after attending Eton College and Sandhurst. “I think I might have gone to the Royal Navy,” he later reflected, “but being me of course I put it off too late – procrastinated— so army was the next best thing.” He served as second-in-command of the 7th Battalion, Black Watch and earned the D.S.O. for heroism at Wadi Akarit in April 1943. When one company wavered after its officers were knocked out, Hopwood took charge of the advance. The citation credited his “actions which were carried out with the highest degree of resourcefulness, courage and determination were undoubtably responsible for the forward Coy reaching its objective.”

Continue reading →