In 1952 Carr, then a lieutenant serving with 28 Field Engineer Regiment RE, was engaged in the hazardous task of clearing old minefields in front of the forward positions of 1st Battalion the Welch Regiment.
The minefields were dangerous to enter for two reasons: first, they were in full view of the Chinese Communists; second, they had been churned up by shellfire, which made the explosives difficult to locate.
On the night of May 9, Carr and his troop started laying a new minefield to deny the enemy a likely line of approach. After lifting part of an existing field, four of his troop were wounded by incoming shells. The following day Carr located, lifted and neutralised all the remaining mines and, that night, supervised the laying of 300 new mines. He had been working for almost 36 hours and, on May 11, his CO forbade him to do any more clearing himself before dark.
It was then that a deeply buried mine resulted in one sapper being killed and another wounded. Carr organised the evacuation of the casualties. On the morning of May 13, while taking bearings to calculate where mines might be if they had not been exploded by shelling, he stepped on a mine which had been displaced and buried by shellfire. He lost one foot and had his other leg broken.
Despite the great pain, he shouted instructions to his wireless operator and, while being carried to the regimental aid post, gave an accurate account of how the accident had happened and provided the information necessary to complete the mine-clearing task. He was awarded an immediate MC.
Colin Dening Carr was born at Cheltenham on March 28 1926 and educated at Cheltenham College. Playing for the 2nd X1, he once took eight wickets in nine balls, but never managed to get into the College team.
After attending the Officer Cadet Training Unit he was commissioned into the Royal Engineers and posted to India. His unit was disbanded after Independence, and on his return to England he served in a training regiment instructing National Servicemen in field engineering, bridging and mine warfare.
After his accident, Carr was in hospital in Japan for several weeks before being flown home to Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot. In those days no attempt was made to provide an artificial limb until a wound had had six months to heal.
He modified his old bicycle so that he could ride it with one leg; and when he went swimming in the sea he removed his artificial leg, planted it upright in the sand and ordered his dog to stand guard to dissuade other canines from mistaking it for a tree stump.
In 1954 he took an RE Long Transportation Course to study railway rules and management. On one occasion, while under instruction, he was travelling on the bumping, swaying footplate of the Bristolian Express when the driver jokingly invited him to put a few lumps of coal into the firebox. Carr seized the shovel from the fireman and, to the astonishment of both men, maintained pressure in the boiler by heaving coal at a rate of more than a ton an hour from the tender into the back of the firebox, a distance of 14ft.
Carr later commanded 79 Railway Squadron RE, but by 1965 transportation was no longer a Sapper responsibility and he and his comrades were transferred into the newly formed Royal Corps of Transport. Some years later a locomotive was named after him.
After a number of staff appointments and a period instructing at the WRAC College, he found employment as a Retired Officer with the Army Cadet Training Establishment. Settled in Camberley, he enjoyed golf and gardening, tennis, chess and bridge.
Colin Carr died on March 27. He married, in 1953, Eve Northcote, who survives him with their son and two daughters.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/army-obituaries/8441548/Major-Colin-Carr.html
After attending the Officer Cadet Training Unit he was commissioned into the Royal Engineers and posted to India. His unit was disbanded after Independence, and on his return to England he served in a training regiment instructing National Servicemen in field engineering, bridging and mine warfare.
After his accident, Carr was in hospital in Japan for several weeks before being flown home to Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot. In those days no attempt was made to provide an artificial limb until a wound had had six months to heal.
He modified his old bicycle so that he could ride it with one leg; and when he went swimming in the sea he removed his artificial leg, planted it upright in the sand and ordered his dog to stand guard to dissuade other canines from mistaking it for a tree stump.
In 1954 he took an RE Long Transportation Course to study railway rules and management. On one occasion, while under instruction, he was travelling on the bumping, swaying footplate of the Bristolian Express when the driver jokingly invited him to put a few lumps of coal into the firebox. Carr seized the shovel from the fireman and, to the astonishment of both men, maintained pressure in the boiler by heaving coal at a rate of more than a ton an hour from the tender into the back of the firebox, a distance of 14ft.
Carr later commanded 79 Railway Squadron RE, but by 1965 transportation was no longer a Sapper responsibility and he and his comrades were transferred into the newly formed Royal Corps of Transport. Some years later a locomotive was named after him.
After a number of staff appointments and a period instructing at the WRAC College, he found employment as a Retired Officer with the Army Cadet Training Establishment. Settled in Camberley, he enjoyed golf and gardening, tennis, chess and bridge.
Colin Carr died on March 27. He married, in 1953, Eve Northcote, who survives him with their son and two daughters.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/army-obituaries/8441548/Major-Colin-Carr.html
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