"Johnny Fergusson-Cuninghame, who has died aged 94, was awarded an MC in Normandy in 1944. On August 4 1944, Fergusson-Cuninghame, a lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards, was the liaison officer attached to 29 Armoured Brigade. 2nd Armoured Bn Irish Guards were under heavy attack from German Tiger tanks south-west of Caen and had become cut off. Vehicles were unable to reach or leave the area and it was impossible to evacuate the wounded or to obtain ammunition and other vital supplies. Fergusson-Cuninghame arrived in a scout car from Brigade HQ and offered to find a new route for these vehicles if he was given 30 minutes to reconnoitre the road. While running through relentless fire from enemy tanks he was, in the words of a regimental history, “slightly winged.” In fact he was hit by a spent bullet but refused to have it attended to. Later in the day, he helped an ambulance convoy to reach safety. After six lorries had been marked with red crosses and loaded with wounded men, he led the column out of the area to a Casualty Clearing Post. They had to move very slowly along the road which was pot-holed and cratered by shelling, but the Germans fired only at the last vehicle and all the casualties got through unscathed. The citation for the award to him of an MC paid tribute to his courage and total disregard for his own safety. John Alfred Fergusson-Cuninghame was born in London on December 16 1921. His father, Major Wallace Smith Cuninghame, was awarded a DSO in the First World War while serving with the 2nd Life Guards. Johnny, as his son was called, played in all the teams at his preparatory school as well as winning the cup for shooting and singing. After Eton, he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, to read Classics but his studies were curtailed by the outbreak of war. In 1940 he joined the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and, after Sandhurst, where he was awarded the Belt of Honour, he was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards. He was posted to the 2nd Armoured Bn and served with 5th Guards Armoured Brigade in the Normandy landings in June 1944. " http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/10/26/johnny-fergusson-cuninghame--normandy-mc--obituary/
