Fergus Rennie

[anglo-saxon]

I thought I'd throw this in the mix. As I was digging through some old packs of photos in my home office the other day, I came across a couple of photos of my old crew on ex in Hankley Common in '83 and it brought back some painful memories. There was Vince, Willy, Griff...and another, younger face whose image brought a pang of sorrow...

A couple of years after I joined my TA unit in the UK, a young lad joined. He was a big strong feller, daft as a brush and full of fun. He was soon one of the lads, having ably proved his worth as a good soldier and a damned good jimpy gunner. He was fit as a buthcher's dog, and though he was still very young, we all trusted him implicitly. In the couple of years he was with the unit, we had some good laughs together. We worked hard, we played hard, we frequently made a damned nusence of ourselves, and generally had a damned good time!

In '84, "Fergie" joined the Paras and some time after that he passed selection and entered 22. Although he occasionally swung by the unit to say, "hi", he had a new life and was away a lot, so we didn't see much of him.

When I emigrated to Canada, I lost touch with many people. It's just one of those things. Life gets busy and you move on. It was not until years later that "Fergie's" name would pop up again in quie unsuspected and, as it transpired, tragic circumstances.

Reading Mike Curtis's "CGB", I was stunned one night to read the part where "Fergie" was shot in the head in Bosnia, later to die from his wound. A quick online search produced a parliamentary report outlining the incident, and this was corrborated by his memorium details appearing in the Allied Special Forces web site. I was gutted. Fergie was only 28 when he was killed. Had he survived, he'd be 38 now and probably about ready to call it a day. I couldn't help but thinik what a waste it was that he had died like that.

God bless him!