The Museum Trustees are delighted to have been presented
with the Military Cross awarded to 2nd Lieutenant (later
Captain) MH Mosley, The Rifle Brigade.
The presentation took place at a special
ceremony in the Museum on 26 February 2010
during which the Military Cross was handed over
to the Chairman of the Trustees, Lt-General Sir
Christopher Wallace, by Captain Mosley’s 7-year
old great-great-nephew, Teddy Ridley. The
ceremony was attended by a number of family
members and friends, including Captain Mosley’s
nephews, Simon, Adam
and Giles Ridley.
Michael Henry Mosley was born on 28 March 1912, the only
son of the Right Reverend Henry Mosley, Bishop of
Southwell, and Mrs Mosley, of Hannington, near
Basingstoke. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and
Trinity College, Oxford. He initially trained to be a
doctor but subsequently elected to study theology and
become a priest. He was on the point of taking Holy
Orders when the Second World War began. He immediately
decided to join the Army.
Mike Mosley was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in The
Rifle Brigade on 23 March 1940 and in October joined the
2nd Battalion (2 RB) in North Africa.The action for which he was awarded a Military Cross as
a 2nd lieutenant (Second Supplement to The London
Gazette, 6 May 1941, published 9 May 1941) took place at
Sidi Saleh on the night, 6/7 February 1941, during a
battle which led to the surrender of the Italian army in
Cyrenaica. |
 |
| The citation reads:
This officer was in command of a mobile patrol
consisting of two platoons and one section Bofors guns.
For three hours he engaged and harassed an enemy column
of 200 M.E.T. with guns and tanks and despite heavy
fire, succeeded in bringing it to a standstill and
forcing the surrender of the entire column. The daring
and initiative shown by this officer in repeatedly
engaging a strong column throughout its length of three
miles at various points undoubtedly convinced the enemy
that much larger forces were opposing them.
Mosley was promoted lieutenant on 23 September 1941 and
to acting captain on 20 November. In July 1942 he
assumed command of B Company 2 RB. He took part in the
battle of El Alamein and was present during 2 RB’s
famous ‘Snipe’ action on 27 October.
On 2 November 1942, Mosley was killed
in action, aged 30, by a burst of
automatic fire from enemy tanks during a
fierce engagement in the early stages of
Eighth Army’s break-out from El Alamein.
Mike Mosley is remembered as one of the
‘stars’ of the desert, a daring leader,
a fine commander, a man of outstandingly
high character and, above all, a man who
cared greatly for his men.
His body lies buried in a joint grave
shared with Rifleman Tom Wade under a
jacaranda tree in the dusty but peaceful
Commonwealth War Graves cemetery at El
Alamein. He was unmarried. |
 |
|
