Clive Dixon

Clive Dixon, who has died at the age of 96, was born in 1924 in Darlington, County Durham. At the time his father was a tenant farmer on a 350 acre mixed farm. His Father came to Northbrook Farm in Micheldever in 1927, when Clive was aged 3 years and his younger sister Audrey was 1.

The early years of life in Hampshire appeared pretty carefree. There are many photographs of him as a boy bombing round the farm on his motorbike – with his adored sister clinging on for dear life as the pillion passenger. Inevitably schooling had to feature and before long Clive was packed off as a young boarder to prep school in Dorset and then onto Canford public school. Despite being a natural sportsman and an accomplished wicket keeper and left-handed batsman in the first XI teams at all ages, he couldn’t wait to leave. The highlight of this period appeared to be the fact that his mother would, completely against the law, allow him to drive to and from Dorset from the age of 14 with her in the passenger seat!

He left school in 1942 and on reaching the age of 18 Clive signed up to join the army. A very rushed 6-month officer training course then followed at Sandhurst before he joined his regiment, The 24th Lancers, an armoured cavalry regiment, as a second lieutenant.

It wasn’t long before the regiment found itself boarding a ship in June 1944 as part of 8th Armoured Brigade of the Normandy invasion force. Arriving on a grey dawn at Gold Beach the chaos and congestion of the landings meant that a very unpleasant and anxious 12 hours was spent waiting offshore. It was at this time that the enormity of the task that lay ahead, together with the responsibility that a 19 year-old inevitably felt towards the men under his command, combined to have a huge and lasting effect on him. Landing on the beach was unopposed but this quickly all changed on day two when the enemy were encountered. It quickly became obvious to Clive that it was almost a case of boys against men and that they were up against a vastly superior and more experienced enemy. A journal, later published as a book, was kept by the regimental Doctor. One revealing insight says so much and reads “… I looked around at the weary men who only a few days earlier had presented as fresh-faced youths. They all appeared to have aged by 20 years in this short space of time.” Clive’s luck ran out on the evening before his 20th birthday when he was seriously wounded whilst under enemy fire. Clive was repatriated after recovering sufficiently to travel and was invalided out of the army in July 1944.

He embraced farming and living in Hampshire as a young eligible bachelor for at least 10 years before acknowledging