Kenneth Muir

Major Kenneth Muir VC (6 March 1912 – 23 September 1950) was a British Army officer and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Military career Muir was born on 6 March 1912, the son of Captain (later Colonel) Garnet Wolseley Muir, who became commanding officer of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in 1923. Muir was educated at Malvern College and was commissioned 2nd lieutenant in the Argylls in 1932, aged 20. He served on the North-West Frontier of India from 1935 to 1938, and during the Second World War saw active service in the Sudan, North Africa, Italy, France, and Germany. At the end of the war, he held the rank of acting lieutenant-colonel and had been mentioned in dispatches.

After service with the provost marshal's branch of the War Office, in early 1950 Major Muir was posted to the Argylls' 1st Battalion in Hong Kong. In August 1950 the battalion moved to Korea, among the first British troops to join the United Nations forces in the Korean War.

Burial

Initially buried in the Taegu Military Cemetery, his remains were exhumed and transferred to the United Nations Memorial Cemetery, Busan, Korea, on 14 May 1951. His name is also recorded on his father's headstone at St. Peter's Churchyard, Frimley, Surrey, England.

Honours Muir's parents received his Victoria Cross from King George VI on 14 February 1951. which are displayed at the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Museum, Stirling Castle, Scotland.

The award of the American Distinguished Service Cross to Muir was, like his VC, a posthumous one.