In Search of Dad: Donald Charles Bullock (1920-1943)

Sometimes it is not just an interest in a family tree that can inspire a search for information.

In 2007 Ann Fitzgerald donated her late father’s medals and documents to the RM Museum; they were the relic of a Dad she barely knew having been three years old when she last saw him. She had grown up to know he had been killed during the Second World War, but had not known the following story.

Through donating her father's medals to the Museum we were able to fill in some of the missing details for her.

Salerno, Italy, September 1943

On the 10th September 41 RM Commando were deployed in the Vietri Sul Mare defile, with 'A' and 'Q' Troops in hilltop positions above Dragonea, when salvoes of mortar bombs, and shells from tanks and 88mm Self-propelled guns fell upon the Commando positions. German infantry of the Hermann Goering Division attacked the hill, working their way along the terraces above the Marines' machine gun positions.  RSM Tierney needed to move his guns to a better position, but this would take some minutes. Sergeant D. C. Bullock reacted quickly and counter-attacked the Germans with a Thompson sub-machine gun when they broke through a troop position on his flank. This enabled his section to move the Vickers guns and repel further assaults, but Sergeant Bullock was unlucky to have been at the regimental aid post when a mortar salvo landed amongst the wounded. He was listed as missing presumed killed. He received a posthumous Mentioned-In-Despatches and was gazetted for the DCM on 29^th June 1944. With no known grave, he is commemorated on Chatham Naval War Memorial on panel 84. 

If you're interested in researching your Royal Marine relative a good place to start would be to visit the Royal Marines Museum's special exhibition 'More than a Name. Everyone's story is different, what's yours?' on until April 2012.