Lieutenant Denys Roy GRIER (90137)
C Company, 2nd Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps

Date of birth: 27th July 1912
Date of death: 17th January 1943

Killed in action aged 30
Buried at Tripoli War Cemetery Plot 7 Row G Grave 8
Denys Roy Grier was born at Worksop in Nottinghamshire on the 27th of July 1912 the son of the Very Reverend Alexander Roy MacGregor Grier MA, Provost of St Ninian’s Cathedral, Perth and former Headmaster of Bloxham School and of Denstone College, and Edith Mary (nee Howes) Grier of Chichester in Sussex.

He was educated at Lancing College where he was in Olds House from September 1926 to April 1931. He was a Company Sergeant Major in the Officer Training Corps where he achieved Certificate A in November 1928 and was appointed as a House Captain in 1930. He gained his School Certificate in 1928 and his Higher Certificate in 1930.

On leaving school he went to work for a timber company in Hull and for Trinidad Leaseholds from 1935 to 1939.

He enlisted as a Private in the London Scottish in 1936 and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the London Rangers on the 21st of June 1939. He was called up for war service with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps on the 28th of August 1939 and was promoted to Lieutenant on the 1st of January 1941. He served in the UK and in North Africa.

On the 17th of January 1943 4th Armoured Brigade was advancing on the left flank of the New Zealand Division near Tripoli. Their objective was the village of Beni Ulid. In the failing light the 2nd Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps received orders to cut the Misturtata to Beni Ulid Road and C Company was sent forward to carry out the task. As they approached their objective they could hear the sound of heavy traffic as the enemy was using the road as a route of retreat. As they approached three of C Company’s trucks hit mines but their machine guns were already in position and began firing on the retreating Germans. The 25 pounder guns of the 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery joined the fight by firing over open sights using the light of both flares and from the burning trucks. By 10pm C Company had complete control of the road, having destroyed two German Mk III tanks, one Italian M13 tank, and had either damaged or destroyed a further twenty vehicles as well as taking a considerable number of prisoners.

When Beni Ulid was taken the next morning a further thirteen M13 tanks were found either damaged or destroyed along with many other vehicles and many more prisoners were taken. Casualties during the engagement were Denys Grier and one other officer killed, with one rifleman killed and twelve wounded.

He is remembered on his father’s grave at All Saints Church, Denstone in Staffordshire and is commemorated on the war memorial at Chichester.

Back