Brigadier Mike Addison

From the December 2000 edition (issue number 2) of the AEA Journal

Brig Mike Addison - A Sapper’s Tribute

Editor: The death of Brigadier Mike Addison occurred in late September. This prompted a number of emails from former members of 9 Indep Para Sqn RE. The author of the following tribute, although wishing to remain anonymous, speaks volumes of the respect that Brigadier Mike so richly deserved.

I, like many of my Squadron contemporaries, was saddened to hear of the death of Mike Addison, OC in the early seventies. We all had stories of him, many humorous, many of his courage. The man seemed to be fearless, on one occasion walking around the top of a high and narrow wall at the Short Strand Bus Depot (Belfast) armed with a borrowed SLR.

I recall one night on a bridging exercise at Weymouth, when I was on the far bank party to receive a medium girder bridge as it was being launched across a deep, dry gap. As I remember it, the correct way for us to cross the gap was to climb along the bridge panels and then walk along the narrow, bouncy launching nose to the far side. The technical terminology, if I ever knew it, now escapes me. The drop was scary, it was dark and windy, so my colleagues and I decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and walked around the long way to cross via an existing bridge to the far bank. We arrived and started to set up the jack and pantograph rollers to receive the launching nose. We heard footsteps approaching from the bridge and sure enough the OC was strolling over the launching nose without a care in the world. He started to talk quietly to us about what we were doing. He wasn’t showing off, he simply set us an example!

Thinking back, it becomes obvious to me that he did an awful lot for us, of which, at the time, we were not aware, nor indeed did he ever try to make us aware and it’s only now, on reflection, that the pieces of the jigsaw are fitting together.

I had a close friend in the Squadron, Tony Feltham, who was terminally ill with Hodgkin's disease in Millbank Hospital. The OC discretely called me into his office and told me that he would arrange time off and travel warrants for me to go and visit Tony for as long as he was in Millbank. I know those visits made a big difference to Tony who sadly was eventually sent home to Rhodesia where he died a short time later.

On a lighter note, when we had our boat race at the Antrim Bridge Camp, the original plan had been to race the floating jetty around a marked course. So heavy and water logged was that jetty that had we used it we would still be paddling today but, in the way of the Squadron, neither boat club was going to back down. Mysteriously on the morning of the boat race, the jetty had disappeared and low and behold there were two light assault boats on the hard. We had of course to use the assault boat and a good time was had by all. We didn’t even stop to think about who had organised the switch, no claim was made, it just happened in, what I now know, was the quiet understated style of the OC. Many other commanders, on getting wind of what we were up to, would have immediately put a block on it, or at least tried to put more overt control on the events.

He was able to keep Squadron morale sky high through the dreariest of Northern Ireland tours. Long, hard work during dangerous times in poor conditions and foul weather. Our chins never dropped, ‘NFI’ was never daubed on a wall.

He was an enthusiastic amateur photographer who would process his own prints and hand them out as requested. It was one of his photos of me, taken in Northern Ireland, that my wife seized upon when we were first married. She had it framed and it has been on her dressing table ever since. Over the years the back of that photo has been a depository of locks of hair from our children and favourite nephews and nieces. It is precious to us and now is even more so.

I'm sure the OC would have had his thoughtfulness and kindness repaid to him during his illness and were it so, even in small portion, then his burden would have been greatly eased. A man of great courage, he would have sought no easy option.

4th from left Maj Mike Addison during his time as OC 9 Indep Para Sqn RE (1972-1974)
This photo was taken in 1973 of Sqn search teams coming out of Crumlin prison having just found a tunnel.