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Major Jeremy James Elliot SNOW (445978)
C Company, 2nd Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Date of birth: 20th December 1935 Date of death: 8th December 1971 Died of wounds aged 35 Buried at St James’ Church, Rowledge, Surrey
Jeremy James Elliot Snow was born on the 20th of December 1935 the eldest son of Brigadier James Elliott Snow MRCS OBE, Royal Army Medical Corps and Mary Gertrude (nee Burton). He was educated at Lancing College from September 1949 to December 1953 where he was in Heads House and was a Sergeant in the Combined Cadet Force. He went on to the Royal Military College Sandhurst from where he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal |Regiment of Fusiliers on the 16th of December 1955. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 16th of December 1957, to Captain on the 16th of December 1961 and to Major on the 31st of December 1967. He was a Freeman of the City of London and was a Liveryman of the Merchant Taylors Company. He was married in London in 1962 to Janet M. (nee Sharp); they had two sons, James and David and were living at Catterick in Yorkshire at the time of his death. At 8.45pm on the night of Saturday the 4th of December 1971 three members of the loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Volunteer Force planted a bomb in the porch entrance of McGurk’s Bar at Great George’s Street in West Belfast near the city centre. The bomb exploded at 8.47pm causing the building to collapse. Emergency services were alerted and within minutes, members of the public, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the army were clawing at the rubble with their bare hands in an attempt to recover the dead and injured from what remained of the building. Jeremy Snow was at the Royal Fusiliers headquarters a short distance away from the scene of the explosion when the bomb went off. Such was the strength of the blast that the soldiers initially thought that it was their building which had come under attack. Snow began organising the rescue operation but quickly handed this over to Major Mike Dudding who, using a loudhailer, organised a human chain of volunteers to remove the rubble. At around 10pm a crowd of Protestants began gathering in the New Lodge/Tiger’s Bay area intent on mocking the Catholic victims of the blast. Before long a Catholic crowd of around one hundred had gathered and the two groups began trading insults and throwing stones at one another. Sensing trouble, Jeremy Snow called up a reserve platoon and, having decided that the crowds were getting out of hand, decided to separate the two groups at North Queen Street. At 10.30pm, as he alighted from his vehicle at Hillman Street a quarter of a mile from the scene of the bombing, he was shot and wounded in the neck by an Irish Republican Army sniper. He was placed on a stretcher and taken by armoured ambulance to the Royal Victoria Hospital. His wife was at his bedside when he died from his wounds four days later. Fifteen Catholics were killed and seventeen were injured in the explosion along with two RUC officers and five civilians who were wounded by gunfire in the aftermath. His funeral was held at 2.30pm on the 14th of December 1971. One of the soldiers from his Company wrote:- “Major Snow was my company commander. Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. I was with the Major the day of the incident. We were plodding along, like you do, when a civilian asked for directions. As Major Snow crossed the road to go to him, he was gunned down. He was a lovely bloke, a real gent and we all had the utmost respect for him. We were all gutted when it happened. I met my wife to be at his memorial service and we have been together for 30 years and to this day we do not forget the sacrifice he made. He was one of the many casualties we had to bear to make N.I. the safe and secure place it is today... I salute you Sir...” He was mentioned in despatches for his services in Northern Ireland which was announced by St James’s Palace on the 23rd of May 1972.

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