14 Facts About Thomas Haddon

Brigadier Thomas Haddon was a British Army officer who served with the airborne forces during the Second World War, most notably during Operation Market Garden in September 1944.

Haddon of the Cameronians, Thomas Haddon was born in Farnham, Surrey, England, on 19 February 1913.

Thomas Haddon was educated at Hamilton Academy, described by the Cambridge University Press as "one of the finest schools in Scotland", and then at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

Thomas Haddon passed out from Sandhurst where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Border Regiment on 2 February 1933.

Thomas Haddon served initially with the 1st Battalion, Border Regiment, in Northern Ireland, until 1935 when he was sent to the 2nd Battalion of the regiment, where he served in India, seeing active service on the North-West Frontier in 1937.

Thomas Haddon remained with the battalion until the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939.

Thomas Haddon remained with the battalion, which in December 1940 transferred to the 31st Independent Brigade, until May 1941 when Haddon, by now a captain, left to attend a shortened course at the Staff College, Camberley.

Thomas Haddon then served throughout 1942 in a variety of staff appointments until, on 27 January 1943, Haddon returned to the 1st Battalion, Border Regiment, now as second-in-command.

However, Thomas Haddon was destined to play little part in the Battle of Arnhem.

On Sunday 17 September 1944, the first day of "Operation Market Garden", Thomas Haddon's glider took off on the first lift from Broadwell airfield, but had to make a forced landing while still over Oxfordshire.

Thomas Haddon was to spend the remainder of the war as a prisoner at Oflag XIIB camp, near Hadamar.

Repatriated, Thomas Haddon returned to a staff post with the Chief of Staff Committee, in July 1945 attending the Potsdam Conference and in 1948 returning, as Second-in-Command, to the 1st Border battalion then stationed in Palestine; later in East Africa.

Thomas Haddon was awarded an OBE in 1951, a CBE in 1961, and appointed an aide-de-camp to Queen Elizabeth II, holding that post from 1962 until his retirement in 1968.

Thomas Haddon maintained association with the Border Regiment as President of the Border Regiment Association in 1966, and Vice-President Border Affairs in the King's Own Royal Border Regimental Association in 1975.