(Surgeon Commander) Dr R T Jolly OBE DAvMed
Rick Jolly was born in Hong Kong in October 1946. His father was captured there in December 1940, and later repatriated to UK by the Royal Navy from a coal mine in Hokkaido in September 1945. After a happy and sunlit childhood in the Far East, Rick attended Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, and then qualified as a doctor in 1969, at Barts Hospital in London. He discovered the Royal Marines while serving as a RN Reservist in Malta, and after gaining the green beret the hard way (in 1972) as part of a Recruit Troop, Rick subsequently served at every level of medical support to the Royal Marines, ending his career in 1996 as the Corps Surgeon.
His 24 years of service has also involved two tours of duty with the Fleet Air Arm as a Flight Surgeon, and three very enjoyable stints away from the front line - in Medical Officer recruitment, and then Officer training in both the Dartmouth Training Ship HMS BRISTOL, and at the Britannia Royal Naval College itself.
From an operational aspect, three winters in Norway (combined with a four month stint in North Belfast in 1974) proved an excellent preparation for the demands of the South Atlantic Campaign in 1982.
As Senior MO of 3 Commando Brigade RM, Rick was Brigadier Julian Thompson's staff medical adviser, but at the same time was also OC Medical Squadron of the Commando Logistic Regiment RM, and thus personally involved with care of the wounded. Despite dust, dirt, poor lighting and the presence of two unexploded bombs in the Field Hospital at Ajax Bay, only three of the 580 British soldiers and Royal Marines wounded in action during the land battles subsequently died of their wounds.
This fantastic Wounded In Action (580 WIA) to Died Of Wounds (3 DOW) conversion ratio has become the standard against which all future battlefield medical support should be judged.
His subsequent OBE in the South Atlantic Honours List was matched by the opposition in 1998, when he was visiting Argentina with HRH The Prince of Wales; having prepared and sent ahead a list of Argentine casualties, he asked the authorities there what had become of them. As a result, the Argentine Foreign Ministry discovered the truth about the battlefield medical care of their wounded, invited over fifty of them to the ceremony in Buenos Aires - and then appointed him as an Oficial (Officer) in the Orden de Majo (Order of May) in recognition.
Her Majesty The Queen personally authorized him to wear the insignia of this decoration 'on all occasions', which he now does - on behalf of about three hundred British Naval, Royal Marines and Army medics who were also involved.
As one of the very few combat veterans to be decorated for distinguished service by both sides in the same war, Dr Rick was also hugely proud, in the 200th anniversary year of Vice Admiral Lord Nelson's death in action at Trafalgar, to have fulfilled the legacy of His Lordship's last prayer that:
'...humanity after the victory should be the predominant feature of the British Fleet...'
In retirement, Rick is the Final Examining Medical Officer for RN, RM and RAF recruits in West Devon and East Cornwall, as well as the Custodian and fund-raiser for the electronic Garden of Remembrance to be found at www.sama82.org.uk
During 2002 he organised, raised the money for, and then led a 220-strong group of veterans and relatives back to the Falkland Islands for Remembrance Sunday. Rick is also an author, and is just republishing his 1983 Falklands War diary, THE RED & GREEN LIFE MACHINE. In addition, his reference book JACKSPEAK has been, for a decade, the definitive guide to the slang and usage of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, whereas the more recent IN CONFIDENCE is a Tri-Service anthology of 'politically incorrect' Confidential Reports.
Rick is 60 years old, and has been married to Susie, a GP practice nurse, since 1970. Their only son, James, died in his late teens of a chronic medical problem. In his memory, and along with another local family, Rick raised £50,000 for a Teenage Unit within the children's wards at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth. HRH The Prince of Wales opened this facility in April, 1994. It has been a great success.
|
