- Other Entry
- SURNAME
Cheyne
- FORENAME
John (Jock)
- UNIT
L Detachment SAS
- RANK
Sergeant
- NUMBER
2876138
- DATE OF DEATH
16th November 1941
- AGE
25
- GRAVESITE
Alamein Memorial,Egypt Column 69
- ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
parent unit Gordon Highlanders
born Aberdeen
resided Aberdeen
son of George and Helen Cheyne,Kemnay,Aberdeenshire
former 11 Commando
joined L Det SAS 28.8.1941
Tmimi-Gazala raid - MIA
John Cheyne was born at Muiryfold Turriff on the 1st of May 1916. (The night the German Airship crossed over the district). He was the second son of George Cheyne who was a horseman at that farm. Up to May 1929, John received his early education at Woodhead, Fyvie. His father moved to Todfold, Kemnay, where he worked with Allan Forbes of Tillybin, Kintore, and John finished his education at Kemnay Secondary School. He then worked for two years on local farms.
At a little over sixteen years old, he lied about his age and joined the 2nd Battalion Gordon Highlanders serving in Gibraltar and Singapore. Following his seven years in the Gordons, he worked with J. Joss in the sand quarries at Bridge of Don. At the first sign of hostilities, he was recalled from the reserves to train conscripts, a job which he disliked, as he could not bear to train boys to go out to be killed, while he, a trained soldier, remained at home.
When the 11th Scottish Commandos was formed, he was one of the first volunteers, taking part in many of the first raids. The 11th Commando was disbanded in the summer of 1941 and John Cheyne was one of the first to be picked by David Stirling to form the S.A.S., the elite band, who were trained to work in small numbers behind enemy lines.
He perished on their first raid on the night of 17/18 November 1941. They set off from an airfield in Cyrenaica in Libya, fifty five men in five old Bombay aircraft, with the intention of parachuting behind enemy lines to place a limpet mine on every plane at Malene and Tmimi aerodromes at Gazala. They ran into a terrific thunder storm and no one knows yet what happened to most of them. He has no known grave, and his name appears on the pillar of the Alamein Memorial, in Egypt in column 69. [ SOURCE ]
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