On Thursday, a Royal British Legion commemoration of the Korean War was held in London’s Horse Guards Parade 70 years after its armistice on July 27, 1953
Many veterans of the Korean War repeat the same thing when you ask about its commemoration seven decades on. Often with a bit of a shrug to cover modest but dented pride. They call it the Forgotten War, though one in which they risked their young lives. Fought far from Britain, in the shadow of the Second World War, it was even largely ignored at the time.
Not by them. Talk to Brigadier Robert MacGregor-Oakford, 90, about the horrors he endured and his recollections are as clear as if he were still that “apprehensive” 19-year-old lad. He vividly remembers the single Mars Bar he managed to swap for the weekly 50 cigarettes he didn’t want â earning him the nickname “the Mars Bar kid”. And the cricket he and his pals of 28th Commonwealth Brigade played against the Aussies.
And the night of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, when âEIIR’ was spelled out on the forward slope of an enemy Chinese position using red and yellow fluorescent air panels. And the moment a mortar bomb snuffed out the life of the newly arrived 18-year-old standing next to him â too young officially to even be there â but somehow left Robert unharmed.
On Thursday, a Royal British Legion commemoration of the Korean War was held in London’s Horse Guards Parade 70 years after its armistice on July 27, 1953. The conflict had begun in June 1950, when North Korea, backed by Communist China and the Soviet Union, invaded the South, who would be supported by a United Nations force.