David was born on the 11th June 1914 at Simla, Punjab, India and baptised there on the 18th July. He was the son of Colonel Charles Folliott Birney, D.S.O. and Rachel Dorothy Dallas Birney. His father was serving in the Royal Engineers. He had an older brother, John Charles Ramsay born in 1911. His younger sister Diana Mary was born in 1921 but died in 1924, when he was ten years old. The family lived at 'Pucks Croft', Rusper, West Sussex.
David was educated at St Andrew's School, Eastbourne until September 1928 when he entered Winchester College following in his older brother's footsteps. David represented his House at gymnastics, was in a winning house cricket XI and took part in three winning steeplechase teams. He also rowed in the second School VI and shot for the Ashburton Shield.
He left Winchester in the summer of 1933 for Trinity College, Cambridge, to read Law. He shot for the University in 1936 and helped the Old Wykehamist Shooting team to their competition in the same year. He graduated with a Batchelor of Arts Degree in 1936. In 1937, he was working in a solicitor's office, Messrs Peacock and Goddard, and with little time to practice, he won the King's Prize at Bisley at his first attempt. In 1937 he went to Capetown in South Africa. He left Liverpool on the 16th October 1937 aboard the Steam Ship 'Ulysses'. His profession on the passenger manifest was 'Articled Clerk'.
Having returned to England, he married Cécilie Mercedes Randell Wood in 1940 at Westminster, London. They made their home at New Milton in Hampshire. Cécilie was a VAD Nurse with the Red Cross. His wife gave birth to their daughter, Ann on the 3rd December 1942.
After leaving Trinity College, David had joined the territorial London Rifle Brigade and he served with them throughout WW2. He was selected for No 2 Commando, taking part in two raids on Norway. He was then selected for Operation Chariot, the St Nazaire raid on the 27th March 1942 when 600 British commandos attacked a huge dry dock to prevent German ships from using it for repairs. Delivered to their objectives by small motor launches, David was in Group One with 14 others on board ML447, captained by Lieutenant Platt RNR. They were to assault the Old Mole (the jetty and lighthouse jutting out 130 metres into the River Loire), and clear away the enemy defences, which included two pill-boxes. At the head of the column, the boat was hit repeatedly by enemy fire. Many of those on board became casualties, but at David's insistence its' commander managed to bring the boat in close enough to have a go at landing what was left of his team of commandos. The boat was hit by a fusillade of small arms fire and a large calibre shell hit the engine room and set the craft alight. Everyone who could abandoned ship. David ordered the last two surviving commandos over the side and a number managed to make it onto the shore, while others were picked up by another boat, ML160. Of the six boats scheduled to land Commandos, only one succeeded. The Old Mole remained firmly in German hands, adversely affecting the chances of successful evacuation for the rest of the landing force.
David was last seen, wounded but swimming, and was duly posted as Missing. It was discovered in March 1944 that David had died of wounds a month after the raid, at the age of twenty-seven.
Although he is buried in France, back home in England, David is commemorated on the War Memorial in the village of Rusper, West Sussex.
He is also commemorated on the Trinity College Memorial and Roll of Honour, and Winchester College Memorial and Roll of Honour.
(Sources: CWGC. Ancestry, Find My Past, Commando Veterans Archive, Operation Chariot, Casualty Lists / National Archives, St Nazaire Society website. Trinity College Chapel ROH, Milton Heritage Society, Newspaper Archives, Winchester College)
(Bio: Woose)
