Major James Ivor Houston
3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment 53748
Killed in Action
Date of Birth: Apr - Jun 1912
Place of Birth: Antrim, Londonderry (Derry), Ireland
Date of Death: 20th of September 1944
Buried: Commemorated on Groesbeek Memorial, Holland, Panel 5. Located at Gelderland, Netherlands.
Awarded the 1939-45 Star and the War Medal 1939-1945
James Ivor Houston was the husband of Lorna Houston, of Weyhill, Hampshire.
James was given a commission in the Essex Regiment and volunteered for airborne forces.
Major Houston successfully completed his parachute training at RAF Ringway on course number 47. His course report stated ‘average, nervous but improved’.
He was posted to command HQ Company, 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, and took part in Operation Market Garden, Arnhem.
3rd Battalion
The 3rd Parachute Battalion was formed in 1941 from volunteers from various infantry regiments. It became part of the 1st Parachute Brigade, later part of the 1st Airborne Division.
The battalion first saw action during the Operation Torch landings, and then further operations in North Africa, by the independent 1st Parachute Brigade.
After the Tunisian campaign, the battalion and brigade rejoined the 1st Airborne Division and took part in Operation Fustian in Sicily, and Operation Slapstick on the Italian mainland.
Withdrawn to Britain with the rest of the 1st Airborne Division, the next mission was during Operation Market Garden and the Battle of Arnhem, during which the battalion was virtually wiped out.
This photograph shows British paratroopers of the Pioneer Assault Platoon of 1st Parachute Battalion, 1st Airborne Division, on their way to Arnhem in a USAAF C-47 aircraft on the 17th of September 1944 © IWM (K 7586)
Major Houston was killed in action in the Oude Kraan area at Arnhem on the 20th of September 1944, aged 32.
The British Airborne Division at Arnhem and Oosterbeek in Holland © IWM BU 10741
He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Groesbeek Memorial.
Major James Ivor Houston, 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment
