Peter Geoffrey Cliffe passed away peacefully on 4th September 2017 at St. Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey, aged 96, after a short illness.

Peter Cliffe was born in Burton Salmon, Yorkshire on 28th April 1921. He went to school in Gerrards Cross and then to Rossall School in Lancashire, where he took a keen interest in sports. Whilst working in the family timber firm, he joined the Territorial Army and was subsequently commissioned into the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment in 1940. During the first years of the war he was stationed at the regimental headquarters in Lincoln. In 1944, as a Captain, he commanded the anti-tank platoon in S Company 2nd Battalion and on D-Day he landed in Normandy on Sword beach with the third wave of troops.

On 8th July1944 Captain Cliffe took part in the battle for Hérouville, just north of Caen, as part of Operation Charnwood. Whilst reconnoitring a route to bring the anti-tank guns forward into the village, he was shot and wounded. Following surgery, he was airlifted back to the UK.

After recovering from his wounds, he joined the Supreme Allied Airborne Expeditionary Force rounding up Nazi officers and SS troops in Germany in the last months of the war. He went on to undertake parachute training with the Parachute Regiment.

Following the end of the war in Europe, Captain Cliffe was due to travel to India in preparation for an assault to retake Singapore from the Japanese. However, with the cessation of hostilities in the Far East he was sent instead to Palestine. It was while on leave from there in 1947, that he met his future wife, Stella, during a holiday in Switzerland and they married the following year.

After returning from Palestine, Captain Cliffe worked at the War Office in London and during his time there he was Mentioned in Dispatches in recognition of his work. He then went to become an instructor at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst and subsequently at the Mons Officer Cadet School at Aldershot.

Peter Cliffe retired from the army with the rank of Major in 1960. He then qualified as a chartered secretary and worked as a company secretary and accountant in Fleet, High Wycombe and later in Slough.

After retiring, Peter Cliffe and his wife moved from Littlewick Green, Berkshire to Pyrford in Surrey. He continued his passion for the outdoor life by going for walks and working in the garden. He is survived by his brother, three children and three grandchildren.