Joe Vandeleur

John Ormsby Evelyn Vandeleur, DSO and Bar (14 November 1903 – 4 August 1988), usually known as Joe Vandeleur from his initials, was an Anglo-Irish British Army officer who served in the Second World War.

Early life Born in Nowshera in British India (now Pakistan), Vandeleur was the son of Colonel Crofton Bury Vandeleur and Evelyn O'Leary. His family was originally from Kilrush, County Clare, where they were the local landlords.

Military career

Vandeleur was commissioned into the Irish Guards as a second lieutenant in 1924, serving in Sudan and Egypt before the war. He went on to command the 129th Infantry Brigade and 32nd Guards Brigade.

His memoirs A Soldier's Story were privately printed by Gale & Polden in 1967.

Later life and death He married Felicity Bury-Barry, who died in 1948. He later married Norah Christie-Miller (who was a Vandeleur cousin on her mother's side).

After the war, Vandeleur resided in a manor house in Pinkneys Green, near Maidenhead in Berkshire.

He died in Maidenhead in 1988 and was buried in Brookwood Cemetery. His grave is marked by a simple headstone inscribed only "J.O.E. V. 1903 – 1988" and underneath "Once an Irish Guardsman".