Thomas A. Bird
Major Thomas Arthur Bird DSO, MC & Bar was a distinguished British soldier and architect whose inspirational command of the anti-tank company of 2nd Battalion, The Rifle Brigade, at Outpost Snipe during the Second Battle of El Alamein helped destroy the armoured counter-attack of General Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps. He later became a noted architect working in collaboration with Richard Tyler from 1955–85.
He remains the only soldier to have witnessed two Victoria Cross actions, that of Second Lieutenant George Ward Gunn of 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery and that of Colonel Victor Buller Turner, at Snipe.
Tom Bird died at his home in Turville Heath on 9 August 2017, two days before his 99th birthday.
