Colour Sergeant Mick Eccles, Royal Marine awarded the Military Medal for a night ambush in the Falklands – obituary

Colour Sergeant Mick Eccles, who has died aged 74, was a Royal Marine who won a Military Medal during the 1982 Falklands War.

At the end of March 1982, Eccles had begun three weeks’ leave after returning from a winter training deployment in northern Norway, when overnight on April 1/2 the Royal Marines 42 Commando, where he was a corporal in K company, was called to arms. The Argentines had invaded the Falkland Islands. Four days later Eccles was one of several hundred heavily armed men on the parade ground at Bickleigh, Plymouth, when his commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Nick Vaux, gave the order: “To the South Atlantic, quick march!”

Meanwhile, SS Canberra, soon to be nicknamed “the Great White Whale”, was requisitioned from P&O and refitted as a troopship; she sailed from Southampton on the evening of Good Friday, April 9, with the Royal Marines embarked.

On May 21, Canberra disembarked her troops in San Carlos Water, from where, in a night move by helicopter, 42 Commando seized Mount Kent. By June 4 the commando had “yomped” forward under cover of darkness to positions west of high ground overlooking Port Stanley. There, after days of probing reconnaissance, by moonlight and in freezing temperatures, 42 Commando moved undetected six miles through minefields in a right-flanking movement to surprise the enemy on Mount Harriet in his rear.

The Battle of Mount Harriet, fought on the night of June 11/12, saw consecutive assaults by K and L companies, up steep slopes against strong resistance and under fierce machine gun and rocket fire, in which the marines prevailed. By first light, some 30 enemy had been killed and over 300 prisoners taken. For its bravery 42 Commando was awarded one DSO, one Military Cross and four Military Medals, and eight men were mentioned in despatches, but two Marines were lost and 26 wounded.

The citation for Eccles’s MM reads: “After surprising the enemy, fierce fighting followed at close quarters amongst the rocks in which decisive and inspiring leadership at section level proved critical. Corporal Eccles set an outstanding example by leading from the front to encourage his section to exploit shock action and successfully overrun the position. This was achieved by a series of assaults against machine gun positions and groups of snipers. 

“Several ranks were wounded, including another section commander, while his troop became even more depleted as increasing numbers of the enemy surrendered and had to be guarded. Corporal Eccles pressed on relentlessly, however, to inflict sufficient casualties for the remainder to abandon further resistance.”

Three days after the battle, and 74 days after they had invaded, the occupying Argentines in the islands surrendered.

A proud Yorkshireman, Michael Eccles was born on April 30 1949 in Sheffield, and left school at 16 to work as a bricklayer. Wanting a life of challenge and adventure, he applied to join the Royal Marines and travelled to Deal in June 1970 expecting to become a bandsman, only to be surprised that he had mis-read the recruitment leaflets and was joining as a commando. 

At the Commando Training Centre, CTCRM Lympstone, he excelled at all subjects – drill, PT, weapon training, fieldcraft, map-reading and the assault course – and gained his coveted Green Beret.

Promoted to sergeant in 1984, he was specially chosen as an instructor in the officers’ training wing (which in 1986 Prince Edward attended), a highly sought-after post and a clear indication of how good a soldier his contemporaries thought him.

In his 22 years’ active service, Eccles also served in HMS Sirius and HMS Tartar, and in Northern Ireland and Hong Kong; he deployed to northern Iraq and southern Turkey, Brunei and Sardinia. Eccles transferred to the careers office in Cardiff where in 2002 he was discharged from the Corps with a very good character reference.

He was a highly professional marine, a robust character and at times a rogue but always likeable and dependable with a keen sense of humour. His officers thought of him as “a favourite among my corporals” and “a true warrior”.

When he began to suffer from early onset dementia and Alzheimer’s, and needing funds to provide supported living, he sold his medals at auction to an anonymous buyer for £82,000.

It was love at first sight when he met Pat Blake in Boobs, one of Plymouth’s legendary nightclubs in Union Street, and they married in 1975. She survives him with their daughter.

Colour Sergeant Mick Eccles, born April 30 1949, died September 27 2023