Arnhem Parsons

Captain Thomas Wood Ingram Cleasby– Commander of the Medium Machine Gun Group, Lieutenant Alan Thomas Green – Platoon Commander and Lieutenant Arthur Royall – Platoon Commander, all 1BORDER at Arnhem.

Captain Ingram Cleasby

Ingram Cleasby was born on 27 March 1920 in Kendal, Westmorland, England, and was educated at Sedbergh and Magdalen College, Oxford.

He was the Commander of the Medium Machine Gun Group.He was wounded during the battle and captured.

Cleasby was held at Oflag IX A/H and with others escaped from the camp’s evacuation march.

After the War he returned to Oxford to complete his degree in Modern History. He trained at Cuddesdon Theological College and from 1949 to 1952 was a curate at Huddersfield parish church. He became the Archdeacon of Chesterfield and then the Chaplain to the Archbishop of York.

He carried the Archbishops Cross during Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation. From 1956-1963 he was a Chaplain to Nottingham University. In 1978 he was appointed Dean of Chester.

He died in 2009.

Lieutenant Alan Green

Alan Thomas Green was born in Leicester in October 1921. He attended the Gateway School, a pioneering technical grammar school, in Leicester before training as a teacher.

He joined the Regiment in October 1942 as a Second Lieutenant and Platoon Commander. His glider was dropped in the sea at the start of Operation Ladbroke and he swam ashore with his sergeant.

During Market Garden he commanded 20 Platoon in ‘D’ Company.

He was wounded, captured and held at Oflag IX/Z at Rotenburg an der Fulda. He was liberated on Friday 13 April by the Americans.

After the War he became a teacher in Leicester, whilst also serving in the Royal Leicestershire Regiment (TA). He became a Captain on the Brigade Staff.

He entered the Church in 1963 and was vicar of several Leicestershire parishes including Braunstone Leicester where he had taught in 1946. He served as the Bishop of Leicester’s Chaplain and was also Warden of the Diocesan Conference Centre at Launde Abbey. He was an Honorary Canon of Leicester Cathedral

In 1998 he took part in the burial service for Corporal George Froud, 1BORDER. who’s body had been found at Arnhem. On his retirement he published an account of 1BORDER at Arnhem that led to the publiction of ‘When Dragons Flew’ the history of the battalion during the whole of WW2.

He died in 2004.

Lieutenant Arthur Royall

Royall was born in London in 1910. His father was in the Metropolitan Police. As a parson Arthur Royall was known as Father Royall.

At Sicily his glider was also released too soon and it came down around 65 miles off the coast.

He commanded 12 Platoon, in ‘B’ Company during Market Garden. He was captured and held at Oflag 79 at Braunschweig. He was freed by the US Army on 12 April 1945.

Royall joined the Clergy in 1952 as a curate at Ashford St Matthew close to Sunbury-on-Thames, London. After a spell as Vicar of Heap Bridge in Bury, Manchester, he returned to London and what would become the focus of his life, the East End, where he was known as Father Royall.

His parishes included ones in Poplar, Bethnal Green and Bromley by Bow. He was Rural Dean of Tower Hamlets. In 1973 he was appointed Prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral. In 1976 he became Archbishops' Clergy Appointments Adviser .

Arthur Royall died in 2013.

The Editor