228396 Captain John Shewell Douglas was born in February 1921 as the son of Charles Shewell Douglas and Dorothy Douglas (née Hogarth), of Harpenden, Hertfordshire. The 1921 census, carried out on 19^th June 1921, shows his age as 4 months; this is consistent with the civil registration of his birth in the first quarter of 1921.

On March 7^th 1942, John was commissioned in The Hampshire Regiment and transferred to the Parachute Regiment on May 26, 1943.

Mid-June 1943, after successfully completing his parachute course, he was assigned to A Company as acting subaltern (Lieutenant).

On September 15^th 1943, John was one of the men who went to the island of Kos to take the Antimachia airfield from the Italian garrison.

On September 16, he received the order to reconnoitre the surrounding islands. To achieve this objective John and his platoon boarded a local fishing boat and completed a ‘liberation’ tour of the islands. On each island they were greeted as triumphant liberators, while the Italian garrisons, usually one Non-Commissioned Officer and four men, offered no resistance.

On one island the Mayor and entire population met Douglas and his men at the quayside. The Mayor made a speech in Greek, to which John answered in English. They were then treated to a mayoral banquet, which went down very well.

On 25^th September 1943, A Company was withdrawn via Cyprus to Ramat David in Palestine, and the island of Kos was handed over to the Durham Light Infantry and men of the RAF Regiment.

On December 10^th 1943, the 11th Parachute Battalion found itself entrained and bound for Port Said, Egypt. In Port Said they boarded His Majesty’s Troopship Orion and on January 4^th 1944, the Battalion arrived at Liverpool in the late afternoon.

In July 1944 Lieutenant Colonel George Harris Lea took command of the Battalion and had to bring the officer situation within the Battalion up to date:
Major Guy Blacklidge took over B Company with John Douglas as his second-in-command.

During the Battle of Arnhem Second Lieutenant James Blackwood, Officer Commanding No 6 Platoon, B Company, wrote the following:

“Thursday 21 September. Usual ‘morning hate’ shortly after first light. Captain John Douglas was killed, when he and a mortar bomb reached the same spot simultaneously”.

John was 23 when he was killed and was first buried in a meadow near Polderweg (Oosterbeek), now Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery 2.B.1.